Baby’s Kusina + Market, the long-awaited Filipino destination, finally has an opening date
With a long delay finally behind them, Raquel Villanueva Dang and Tam Dang will open Baby's Kusina + Market in Brewerytown on Feb. 8.
No one said Raquel Villanueva Dang and Tam Dang would have it easy opening Baby’s Kusina + Market, their modern Filipino restaurant and market in Brewerytown.
Nearly two years after starting work on their century-old building on Girard Avenue — a year of it involving delays out of their control — the lechon sisig bowls, ensaymada, and bibingka are expected to roll out of the kitchen starting Feb. 8.
Baby’s will serve an early morning menu and an all-day menu from the counter, with special supper-club dinner seatings that will start down the road. The concept grew out of Tita Emmie’s, the roving Filipino pop-up that the couple launched in 2018.
“When Tam and I started dating, we’d always be the ones hosting friends and family for dinners, and I loved that because growing up Filipino, love was always shown through sharing food,” Raquel Dang said. Baby’s is a way to pay tribute to the women in her family, as well as to her culture and the Philadelphia Filipino and Asian community as a whole, she said.
Emboldened by Tita Emmie’s success, she quit her pharma job in March 2022 and headed to the Philippines for a month to immerse herself in her homeland’s food and culture. Raquel Dang, 36, is first-generation Filipina American, while Tam Dang, 39, is first-generation Vietnamese American and a firefighter in the Air Force.
Shortly after her return, the couple found the building at 2816 W. Girard Ave., which previously housed Rybrew and Harper’s Ice Cream. They have since bought a house around the corner from the restaurant.
For months before the official opening, Baby’s has operated on a limited basis. “I had to make a decision to be creative with our kitchen in order to keep the business afloat and our staff employed, even if that meant not paying ourselves,” Raquel Dang said. “Using our kitchen as a commissary, we took on corporate catering clients, off-site events, private catering, and continued to do pop-ups and collaborations to help keep us afloat. Proud to say we kept nearly our full staff despite a year of delays.”
Raquel Dang, who recently posted an emotional video on Instagram about their struggles, cited “ongoing issues with contractors that became the start of our delays. That, coupled with navigating a very convoluted regulatory process with the city, made it even more challenging even with multiple resources trying to guide us through the process.”
Assimilation Design Lab were the architects. The Dangs have handled the interior design themselves. The interior features exposed brick to provide an industrial feel, along with bright touches and warmth from plants. The furniture is inspired by pieces you might find in a Filipino home — think cane and rattan.
Baby’s — named after Raquel’s mother, Ermelita, (also known as Emmie, or Tita Baby) — has 15 seats on the ground level and 25 to 30 seats on the mezzanine.
Outdoor seating is planned for the future. Takeout will be available, but delivery has not been determined. There also will be locally sourced produce and ingredients along with Filipino and Southeast Asian market items.
Raquel Dang leads the kitchen with Alvin Panicker as chef de cuisine and McBryan Lesperance as head pastry chef. Besides house-made pastries such as calamansi doughnuts, ensaymada, bibingka, and ube handpies, breakfast options will include the Rich Tita with pork longganisa (a sausage similar to chorizo), egg, and Cooper sharp cheese; and the jowa (chicken tocino marinated in pineapple juice, soy and annatto, fried egg, and Cooper sharp cheese). Among the plates will be a lechon sisig bowl (seared and crispy pork belly with chili, onions, and garlic, served over rice with atchara and lime).
The coffee program sources liberica beans (also known as Kapeng Barako) from the Philippines, which are roasted in Kensington by Thu Pham’s Càphê Roasters.
Baby’s will be open six days a week (closed Tuesdays) from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with weekend brunch from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The restaurant will open as a BYOB, and pastries will be available all day or until sellout.