New Filipino bakery opens in Carol Stream next door to family’s restaurant
From the consistent stream of customers, it clearly was the right time for Mae Wee to open Lasa Filipino Café.
The business, now open at 600 E. North Ave. in Carol Stream, is in the former space of 206 Brewing Company, next door to Hong Ning Filipino Restaurant & Grill. Hong Ning has been in the retail center at Schmale Road and North Avenue since 2015 after 19 years in Glendale Heights.
The two eateries are a family operation. Wee owns and manages Lasa and her parents, Ernie and Marilou Wee, do the same at Hong Ning, though they can all step in to help customers at both places.
It’s convenient, economical and, for many Hong Ning diners, a great second stop for sweet baked goods to take home.
“I think we’ve always wanted to continue expansion, and we’ve explored opening something closer to downtown Chicago. But I think we kind of just wanted to stay close to each other,” said Mae Wee, who celebrated Lasa’s official grand opening on Sept. 14.
“It seemed much more economical or easier to just be like, ‘Hey, do you have extra sugar?’ And it’s really like that,” she said.
Where Wee came from — Manilla, moving with her parents to the United States from the Philippines when she was 8 years old — “café” means bakery. That’s Lasa’s sweet spot.
Items are made daily using fresh ingredients and no preservatives, with several gluten-free selections on the concise menu.
“It’s like that corner bakery that you would walk to,” Wee said. “Every neighborhood would have one.”
Wee and her two bakers create Filipino-style bread rolls and rice cakes, rotating different flavors of “bibingka,” a traditional Filipino rice cake made with rice flour, coconut milk, and cream.
Wee’s favorite is Pan De Sal, a bread roll. Customers’ favorite is the Ube Cheese Pan De Sal, filled with purple yam jam and cheese.
“We bake small batches throughout the day, so most likely you’re able to probably get something that was just out from the oven within the last hour or two,” Wee said.
Lasa also offers specialty items such as the rich Champorado chocolate rice pudding and other dessert items like coconut macaroons, plus coffee, tea, a jasmine- and orange-infused lemonade, a pineapple and coconut milk cooler, and a dark hot chocolate, Tsokolate De Batirol.
Wee grew up surrounded by family in her grandfather Jose’s restaurant, Pinpin, in Manilla. Wee’s aunt and uncle, Jojo and Gie Wee, opened Hong Ning in Glendale Heights before moving to British Columbia and opening a Pinpin restaurant there. In 2002, Ernie and Marilou Wee took over Hong Ning.
Mae Wee also attended the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and before opening Lasa returned to the Philippines to study under a master baker.
She believes her strongest influence comes from her family.
“Absolutely,” Wee said.
“I think in terms of running it, trying to set it up. And I do think DuPage County’s great, Carol Stream is great, we have good relationships with everybody, and that’s made it so much easier to kind of put something together,” she said.
Open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., the café’s relaxing interior features painted earth tones, a tropical-themed mural, and Filipino art on the walls. Wee hopes to expand the menu and add seating to the current three small, circular tables that seat nine.
“I am trying to make this space really nice, so that people feel welcome to sit and stay,” she said. “And that is something that I think Filipinos inherently look for, is a place to gather.”