Coffee, Calamansi, and Culture: Baby’s Kusina & Market Finally Opens

A preview of dishes from Baby’s Kusina. / Photography by Mike Prince

Seven years after starting as an at-home pop-up, and after almost a year of permitting delays, Baby’s Kusina & Market, located at 2816 West Girard Avenue in Brewerytown, will officially open their doors this Saturday, February 8th, at 10 a.m.

The Filipino-focused menu will feature a coffee program centered on beans sourced exclusively from the Philippines and roasted locally by none other than Càphê Roasters; a pastry menu packed with handmade calamansi doughnuts, pillowy ensaymada, and bibingka and ube hand pies; and savory dishes like lechon sisig bowl made with seared pork belly with chili, onions, and garlic, served over rice with atchara and lime.

Raquel Villanueva Dang and Tam Dang, the husband-and-wife team behind Baby’s, began the project under the name Tita Emmie’s, as a series of dinner parties in 2018. They wanted to share the food of the Philippines in a city where options are limited. Raquel is a first-generation Filipino American, and Tam is a first-generation Vietnamese American, and they’ve consistently pulled inspiration from their backgrounds. When they started, it wasn’t with the goal of opening a brick-and-mortar. But the longer they ran the pop-ups, the more they felt excited about it.

A view of Baby’s main dining room from the loft

They started working on their Brewerytown location nearly two years ago and have been delayed by permitting for nearly a year. I actually interviewed them in the spring of 2024 for what was supposed to be a pre-opening feature, but the delays started to pile up.

“We ran into a ton of issues with our contractor that we were very forthcoming with [the city] about,” Raquel said. “There were things in the building that weren’t completed, and even though they didn’t break code, they said, ‘No, you have to complete this part of your project.’ That obviously strained a lot of our resources beyond what I thought was fair.”

Though it’s been a long road, they’ve made the best of it. Raquel and Tam had hired a full team in 2023 and have been able to keep that group employed and intact over the last year by staying nimble and continuing to host events and pop-ups. The restaurant’s kitchen has served as a commissary, as they’ve continued to sell pastries and build excitement for the grand opening, which will be the first time they’re able to bring guests into the space, a gorgeous two-story room with a loft overlooking the main dining room.

Ube croissants with an ube matcha latte

The entire menu looks exceptionally mouthwatering, but the coffee program is shaping up to be a big draw. In addition to classic espresso and drip coffee (made from kapeng barako, a coffee variety grown in the Philippines and prized for its lower caffeine levels and smooth flavor profile), they’re building out a menu of specialty coffee drinks and matcha, which Raquel says the team has gotten excited about over the last year.

“Coconuts are so popular in Filipino cuisine, so we’re thinking about making a coffee drink with coconut water,” she told me over the phone while on a research trip in the Philippines. She, her husband Tam, and the Baby’s team were recently eating and drinking their way through the country, searching for new ideas to bring to their new restaurant. “We also had a drink with sweet corn, which is really popular in Filipino desserts, so that was something we wanted to incorporate as well.”

Baby’s Kusina & Market will be open every day but Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. They’ll have a breakfast and lunch menu during the week, plus brunch service on the weekends from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Down the line, they also plan to use the space to host dinners on select Saturdays. The grand opening party is scheduled for this Saturday, February 8th, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.