RAVENSWOOD — If you’ve had a Filipino-inspired dish or drink in Chicago lately, odds are Francis Almeda had something to do with it.
Almeda is the driving force behind Ravenwood’s Side Practice Coffee, 5139 N. Damen Ave., where specialty drinks at the 5-year-old cafe often include some form of ube, the purple yam native to the Philippines. At Drip Collective, 172 N. Racine Ave. in the West Loop, where Almeda is a partner, the signature turon latte mimics the flavors of the Filipino dessert of the same name.
Almeda’s Novel Pizza Cafe, 1759 W. 19th St. in Pilsen, offers a pie topped with longanisa, a sweet Filipino sausage. Kanin, a recent addition to Almeda’s tight-knit group of hospitality spots located one door away from Side Practice at 5131 N. Damen Ave., focuses on musubi, the popular Filipino Hawaiian rice-based snack. Kanin means rice in tagalog, a Filipino dialect.
Then there’s Del Sur, 4639 N. Damen Ave., where two-hour waits aren’t unheard of for the bakery’s longanisa-stuffed croissants, turon danishes and ube cream-filled cookie sandwiches. Owner Justin Lerias got his start at Side Practice’s weekend pop-ups before opening the Ravenswood bakery in late March, with Almeda as advisor.
For Almeda, 42, it’s all in a day’s work.
“In 2020, when I opened Side Practice, I knew I wanted to showcase Filipino flavors,” said Almeda, a North Park resident. “I’m a big believer in showing who you are through whatever you make. There’s a lot of authenticity that comes with that, and having my culture shine through in the coffee shop meant a lot to me.”
The ‘Side Project Guy’
Almeda’s parents were born in the Philippines and moved to Chicago in the ’80s. He grew up in Lincoln Square, went to high school in suburban Rolling Meadows and moved back to the city to attend DePaul University.
Before Almeda became Chicago’s unofficial ambassador for Filipino food and culture, he was a creative director at top advertising agencies in San Francisco and Chicago, including at Google. He taught design and marketing at Miami Ad School, Chicago Portfolio School and DePaul.
While working in advertising, Almeda become known as the side project guy with an ability to bring multiple projects to life simultaneously, he said.
“I can work on a lot of ideas at once,” he said at a Chicago Creative Morning talk in May. “That’s just the way my brain works.”
But after about two decades, Almeda became disillusioned with agency life and felt something was missing.
“I was working hard on things I didn’t care about for others to make money,” he said.
In 2016, Almeda launched a merchandise business. He started with hats and T-shirts, but the business really took off with the cute, illustrated enamel pins he made under the name Reppin.
Almeda’s wife, Ann, came up with the name.
“Reppin put her through college,” he said of the pins’ success. “I got on that wave at the right time.”
A few years later, Almeda got the opportunity to work on a “crazy side project” helping design food concepts at Allegiant Stadium, the Raiders football team’s home in Las Vegas. The experience sparked his passion for hospitality, said Almeda, who worked in restaurants early on in his career.
Helping Others Shine
In February 2020, Almeda took over a former coffeehouse in Ravenswood. The pandemic delayed the opening of what would become Side Practice, but it gave Almeda and his wife time to practice their coffee-making skills and renovate the space.
Six months later, during lockdown, Almeda and R.J. Ricalde, his first official employee, opened Side Practice. Ube doughnuts and a Manila matcha, the latter of which has become a bestseller, were on the menu.
Almeda recalls the line of mask-wearing customers snaking down the sidewalk. They sold 326 drinks opening weekend.
Soon, Almeda began hosting pop-ups. Word spread quickly that Side Practice took its name seriously and wanted to showcase the side gigs of others.
“It was really important for it to not only me be as representation of a Filipino entrepreneur but let others have their shine too,” Almeda said. “Once people found out it was Filipino, naturally, a lot of Filipino entrepreneurs started to reach out.”
They included Lily Wang and Joe Briglio of Nine Bar, which at the time functioned as a pop-up out of Moon Palace, her parents’ Chinatown restaurant. Jojo Ybe of online handcrafted ice cream company Milky Milky made an appearance too.
“We’re hoping that SBC is the starting place, and then the doors open for them to pop up at other places,” Almeda said. “They get to build their brand and audience and gain a following.”
That’s what happened to Lerias, who connected with Almeda on Instagram after reading a newspaper article about Side Practice and its commitment to supporting entrepreneurs via its pop-ups and the merchandise it features. After quickly selling out at his early pop-ups with lines out the door, Lerias’ pastries became regular menu items at the café.
When Del Sur opened this March, its espresso machine came from Side Practice with Almeda acting as an “investor adviser,” Lerias said. “Francis is too important in our little universe to force him to be in one space like he would if he was a partner here.”
In February 2024, Almeda opened Drip Collective with Ty Banks, a former Side Practice barista and well-known coffee expert. Like Side Practice, the West Loop spot pushes the boundaries of what a coffeehouse can be by showcasing the creative projects of local artists, musicians and DJs.
And in keeping with Almeda’s ability to multitask — “I used to say I do freelance on the side, but I’ve reframed my life where everything is a side project” — he created Pilsen’s Novel Pizza in June 2024 with his cousin Ryan Catolico and their friend, Enrique Huizar.
Bodega Buzz
Julius Tacadena, born in the Philippines and raised in Hawaii, connected with Almeda through pop-ups he did at Side Practice and Drip Collective for KRACKish, Tacadena’s snack mix.
When Tacadena heard Almeda was looking for a breakfast pop-up at Novel Pizza to drive traffic on Saturday mornings, he had the perfect product: his riffs on the musubis he grew up eating, commonly found in Hawaiian convenience stores.
Almeda saw a bigger project.
The two bonded immediately, and, along with a few additional partners, created Kanin, a Filipino Hawaiian bodega of sorts next door to Side Practice.
On opening day, customers waited for more than two hours for the handheld rice snacks with toppings like Spam and tamarind shrimp and sweets like ube-banana pudding.
Kanin’s motto, “Everybody eats,” is more than about sustenance, Almeda said.
“It means if we’re going to grow and shine, you’re going to grow and shine as well, and everyone’s going to get their attention and flowers in due time,” he said.
Almeda hints at future projects with Tacadena and Banks of Drip Collective.
“Without them, I don’t think there is a me,” said Almeda, acknowledging his limited cooking, baking and coffee-making skills. “They are extremely talented, and each do those things way better than me. I’m just there to kind of bring them to life. It’s like I’m alley ooping while they’re dunking it.”
Since opening Kanin, Almeda and Tacadena continue to brainstorm new ideas and dishes.
“I don’t think a day has gone by without us talking,” said Tacadena, who used to work at Instagram. “The things he’s a part of showcase and uplift those around him, bringing everyone along for the ride.”
‘It’s A Circular Thing’
Even those who haven’t worked directly with Almeda have felt his encouragement.
Filipino chef/owner Lawrence Letrero of the Ravenswood restaurants Bayan Ko and Bayan Ko Diner met Almeda this year when they worked together on Chi-ibigan, an event that celebrated Filipino Food Month in April.
“Whatever Francis has his hands in, he always makes it a point to promote Filipino culture to the masses,” said Letrero, whose restaurants combine Filipino and Cuban flavors and ingredients. His wife, Raquel Quadreny, is Cuban. “Opening up our culture to everyone and not gatekeeping it is what he does well.”
Joe Fontelera of Boonie’s Filipino Restaurant in North Center became good friends with Almeda after he moved to his North Center location from a previous food hall. While Almeda wasn’t part of Fontelera’s early journey, they quickly built mutual respect as business owners with a shared commitment to community and uplifting Filipino culture, Fontelera said.
Fontelera also appreciates Almeda’s help boosting visibility for Boonie’s through his platforms.
“Francis has connected a lot of people within the community and provided access to resources that help others pursue the best version of their work,” Fontelera said. “It’s a circular thing, and the better we each are at expressing our individual concepts, the more people pay attention. More importantly, the next generation of Filipino entrepreneurs can see what’s possible, something Francis’ and my generation didn’t really have, and feel empowered to pursue their own dreams.”
For Almeda, the feeling is mutual.
“We’ve created this culture in the Chicago Filipino and AAPI food industry where it’s all about collaborating and building things together, and that’s what’s going to make this city different than others,” Almeda said. “I get to wake up every day and work on fun things with people that I love around me.”
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