A Bakery Serving Pastries Infused with Filipino Flavors is Coming to Lincoln Square

By Daniel Hautzinger / WTTW Chicago / April 3, 2024

A bakery with unique Filipino-infused pastries is coming to Lincoln Square. For the past year, Justin Lerias has been selling longanisa croissants, turon danishes, calamansi hojicha buns, and more artful creations out of Side Practice Coffee in Lincoln Square and at pop-ups under the name Del Sur Bakery. Now, he’s opening a brick-and-mortar bakery in the neighborhood with Side Practice owner Francis Almeda, right next to the Damen Brown Line stop at 4639 N. Damen Avenue. Lerias hopes to open in the fall.

Del Sur will join a continuing wave of spots garnering recognition for Filipino food in Chicago. One of the biggest success stories in the city’s culinary scene is Kasama, the nationally recognized Filipino tasting-menu-by-night, brunch-and-bakery-by-day restaurant in West Town, but spots like Boonie’s and Bayan Ko have also drawn attention in the Lincoln Square area. Bayan Ko, which combines the Filipino and Cuban ancestry of its husband-and-wife owners, recently turned its first location into a tasting menu spot and is opening a more casual diner down the street. Boonie’s has garnered both national and local acclaim after its owner turned a food hall stand into a brick-and-mortar restaurant last year. Side Practice spotlights Filipino flavors such as ube and pandan. And the presence of the Filipino supermarket Seafood City further west has helped make the Northwest Side a center of Filipino food; another Filipino bakery, Umaga Bakehouse, is opening near there in April. Read More Here