Umaga Bakehouse continues boom of Filipino restaurants and shops in Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Some say there's a boom in Filipino restaurants and food shops in Chicago, and one Albany Park bakery is expanding the delicious offerings with traditional foods in a very modern setting.
Bakers at the new Umaga Bakehouse, at 4703 W. Foster Av., are working hard to keep up with demand. Ever since the shop opened in April, customers have been flocking to the new Filipino bakery.
"The support, with the lines outside, it was amazing," said Kissel Fagaragan, who owns the shop with her husband, Robert.
They both worked in bakeries for years in California and Chicago before opening their own place. Kissel said they met at a bakery, but eventually, "we were burnt out."
"We wanted something new," she said.
Investors gave them the opportunity to create their own business. They named it Umaga, which means morning in the language spoken in the Philippines.
"We chose morning, because in the morning you want that fresh bread, that fresh smell of the bread, just to start off your day bright, positive," Kissel said.
Their offerings are fresh, but also very traditional Filipino.
"We wanted them to taste it like as if it was back home in the Philippines. That's why, with the racks coming out, we want them to get that hot bread, because that's what they do in the Philippines on the streets. Like, the little shops, they're just producing hot bread," Kissel said.
Offerings include señorita bread, also known as Spanish bread, which are rolls with brown butter filling; hopia, which are bean cakes filled with ube, a purple yam; and pandesal, which are bread rolls served hot in paper bags, and are often dipped in coffee, milk, or hot chocolate, or served with butter, cheese, jam, peanut butter, chocolate spread, or other fillings, or just eaten alone.
Those are just some of the offerings bringing happiness to Umaga's customers, and to Robert, whose father was a baker too.
"When he passed away in 2013, he told me to do what makes you happy, and making bread, it just makes me happy," Robert said.
Umaga is in a shopping center near several other restaurants and a grocery store that cater to Chicago's Filipino community.
