Famed Filipino Food Cart Baon Kainan Is Transforming Into a Restaurant

Eater

3 days ago

is a freelance food and drink writer in Portland, Oregon. She's worked in food media since 2018, with a particular focus on small businesses that have been largely left out of mainstream media.
When Ethan and Geri Leung moved from Seattle to Portland to open Baon Kainan in 2021, their Filipino food cart was an instant success. It earned Eater Portland's Best New Cart Award that year thanks to its playful comfort food dishes like kare kare fries. Now, after four years and a few location moves, the Leungs will close the food cart on July 25 and open a restaurant on September 3 at the Lovely Rita space in The Hoxton hotel in Old Town. This will be a six-month residency for now, with the possibility of extension. Along with the move, Baon Kainan, whose name refers to food packed for a trip or for school or work, is getting a new concept and a new name: Pamana, which means legacy in Tagalog.
'Pamana always stuck, because at the end of the day, what we do is for our family and what we learned from them, and that's how we keep a lot of our stories and our culture alive,' says Geri. 'And I think that's what we were doing at Baon — and now we get to do it on a more expanded level.'
Geri draws inspiration from her family's tattered green binder, which includes recipes from her adoptive dad's mother who lived in South Carolina and her mother's first forays into cooking so-called American food. She also takes ideas from her childhood growing up in a military family in Italy. Ethan, meanwhile, will draw from his mother's recipe journals and his mixed Filipino-Chinese heritage.
Pamana will initially be open for brunch only. Some dishes will be revamped from Baon Kainan's existing brunch menu, like bistek and eggs. Rather than the braised beef served on the cart and packed into paper boxes, they'll cook whole steaks to temperature — an homage to one of Ethan's favorite dishes that his mom would make for him. Other dishes draw from memories of cooking together as a family. The tortang talong, or eggplant omelet, is an unconventional take on the classic dish, served extra-crispy in a twist that Ethan's mom and Geri devised together one day in the kitchen. The cart's popular chewy ube bibingka dessert will be revamped into pancakes, offering that same bouncy texture in pancake form accompanied by a drizzle of creme anglaise. One of the couple's favorite childhood snacks, turon — hot, crispy banana lumpia — is the inspiration for French toast topped with saba bananas and jackfruit.
Molly J. Smith
Baon Kainan was known for its collaborative spirit, working with other food carts and hosting a Filipino-inspired breakfast sandwich pop-up, Balong, which has since opened its own brick-and-mortar shop. Pamana will keep its collaborative culture going by serving Balong's pan de sal with garlic butter or coffee butter. They'll also use Balong's pan de sal for breakfast sandwiches stuffed with longanisa, and make pan de sal fried chicken sandwiches with gravy for dipping — a tribute to Filipino fast food chain Jollibee, which holds a particularly special place in Geri's heart.
'Jollibee has been a way for me to connect with my family in the Philippines, because I actually didn't get to meet my Filipino side until I was in my mid-20s,' says Geri. 'But the one thing that me and my cousins and my godsons and my goddaughters could actually connect on was we both love Jollibee.'
Lovely Rita will continue to operate its coffee program to accompany Pamana's food. Brunch will be dine-in only to start, served on the hotel's main floor — but eventually, food will be available for take-out and even room service.
After settling into brunch service, the restaurant will eventually begin offering dinner, likely in the fall. The Leungs are quiet about dinner menu details for now, but word is that the cart's pancit will make a return.
In the meantime, the Leungs are excited to build community in their Old Town location. 'We have our friends at Deadstock Coffee, Goodies Snack Shop, Barnes and Morgan, all doing amazing things — we want to be in a place where we can uplift each other, too,' says Ethan.
With Pamana, they'll be adding a new brick-and-mortar to the city's Filipino food scene, which has seen massive growth this year. 'We're taking up space in the Hoxton, Sunrice is opening their spot on Williams, Balong opened up in Fubonn, we got a Jollibee out in Hillsboro,' says Ethan.
'It's really cool to see — and I think there's going to be more,' says Geri.
Molly J. Smith / EPDX