Just opened: Cafe Cebu brings a Filipino-French bakery to the suburbs, among 7 restaurant openings around Chicago

Louisa Chu, Chicago Tribune
·6 min read

A modern Filipino family restaurant in Chicago just opened a new shop in the suburbs that’s already selling out of ube cookies and even ice cream, despite the cold weather.

Cafe Cebu soft-opened in Naperville on Nov. 13. It’s the sister shop, literally, to Cebu restaurant in Wicker Park.

“It’s mostly a dessert shop,” said pastry chef Cybill Tan. She and her brothers co-own both businesses, but she’s typically the one running day-to-day operations at the new space. “We make homemade ice cream and sorbet too.”

Tan also bakes pan de sal, cupcakes, cheesecake and her signature crinkle cookies, known at the restaurant as cranky cookies.

“One of our servers kind of mispronounced crinkle to cranky,” Tan said. “At the restaurant we call them cranky cookies, but in the bakery we just call them crinkle cookies.”

She brought one savory item from the first Cebu.

“We are doing longganisa buns,” Tan said. “For now, that’s the only savory item that we have, because the longganisa needs to be made at the restaurant, and then one of my brothers transports it to the cafe.”

They make beef longganisa, unusual for a dish normally made with pork.

“My brother said we just had too much pork on our menu,” Tan said, laughing. “And a lot more people are more health conscious, so they’re trying to get leaner meat.”

But customers are mostly coming for the sweet stuff.

“Ube crinkles and ube pan de sal sell out a lot,” Tan said.

The ube pan de sal is her traditional Filipino bread roll recipe, plus organic ube powder.

“I put ube jam inside, so it’s kind of like an ube pastry,” Tan said.

The menu changes just about every day, but not on a whim.

“Since our cafe is small, we don’t even have a walk-in,” Tan said. “That’s why we only sell a limited amount every single day.”

They’re still in a soft-opening stage, because they haven’t received most of their equipment yet.

“And it’s basically only me and my older brother, Malvin,” Tan said. “Sometimes one of the guys from the restaurant comes to help us out.”

She and her brothers always wanted to open another spot. Unlike many other businesses born during the pandemic, however, the shop was still a bit of a surprise to Tan, who went on maternity leave from June until September.

“I don’t know why we opened another spot in a pandemic, but we did,” she said, laughing again.

Meanwhile, she just started to roll out her new calamansi mascarpone cheesecake and calamansi crinkle cookie.

“I made a calamansi crinkle at the restaurant, but it was only one day for Pride, because I made like seven colors of crinkle cookies,” said the chef. “Calamansi is almost like a cross between a lime or lemon and an orange, so it’s kind of sweet and tart at the same time.”

They’re working on an ube latte, and still making halo-halo, even though it’s getting cold out.

When you stop in, do note everyone calls her Cy, which rhymes with pie.

“Like they did back in the Philippines,” she said.

Café Cebu; 790 Royal St. George Drive, Naperville; 331-472-4975; cafecebu.com

More notable new restaurants, listed in alphabetical order:

Ayo Pizza Cafe & Shop

The only Chicago pizzeria to be both Black-owned and Asian-cheffed just opened in Lincoln Park. Ayo Pizza Cafe & Shop celebrated its grand opening Nov. 17, serving creative thick-crust grandma slices — a Long Island speciality of thin rectangles of pizza akin to Sicilian style — and whole thin-crust tavern pies. The all-day cafe is brought to you by The Delta restaurant’s founder Eldridge Williams with partners Chris Scardina and chef Christian Sia. Look for the signature tavern-style Nonna Cappellano tomato pie ($22) with eggplant caponata, vegan mozzarella and spiced breadcrumbs; a sausage slice ($3.75) with classic mozzarella and red sauce; and sweet potato tiramisu ($6).

953 W. Willow St., 312-846-6896, ayopizza.com

Devil Dawgs Gold Coast

The devil may now make you do it in the Gold Coast. Devil Dawgs tempts you from its fourth location, this one a block west of the Magnificent Mile in the former Downtown Dogs space, as of Nov. 18. The shop offers a limited menu of fan favorites including Dah Big Chicago Dawg ($6.95) with a quarter-pound of grilled sausage, an organic vegan Dawg ($5.50) and, of course, a classic Chicago-style hot dog ($4.50), all with traditional toppings. Do note they’re only open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., for now.

767 S. State St., 312-583-9100, devildawgs.com

Nights & Weekends

Heisler Hospitality (the restaurant group behind Lone Wolf, Estereo and more) just started pouring at its newest bar in the West Loop. Nights & Weekends quietly opened its spectacular reclaimed brick space, with repurposed kilim rug banquettes and bar stools, Nov. 18. Daily at 4:45 p.m., they start not a happy hour, but a happy quarter-hour. For 15 minutes, cans of Old Style beer and call cocktails are $2 until 5 p.m., so remember to ask for your Buffalo Trace bourbon by name. Later on, you’ll find funky highballs ($13), including CH Distillery vodka with house-made cream soda.

1009 W. Lake St., nightsandweekendsbar.com

Segnatore

The beloved Café Marie-Jeanne space has been reborn as a neighborhood Italian restaurant. Segnatore began service Nov. 16 under chef Matt Troost and his partners at the Orbit Group. The hospitality group also owns Good Measure and is working on reopening the iconic California Clipper across the street in Humboldt Park. Troost’s “freestyle lasagna” ($21) features house-made garlic mafaldine (the pasta of the moment), while pastry chef Hillary Grossman bakes a seasonal preserved squash tart ($11), and beverage program designer Kristina Magro conjures an Enchantress’ Garden cocktail ($14) with fragrant Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto liqueur.

1001 N. California Ave., 773-697-9687, segnatore.com

In other restaurant news:

Know of a Chicago-area restaurant that’s new and notable? Email food critic Louisa Chu at lchu@chicagotribune.com.

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