Tabachoy in South Philly showcases the diversity of Filipino flavors

His father’s pork adobo was calling, and Chance Anies could not resist.

He’d tried different careers in his early 20s, putting his college degree to good use as a high school English teacher in Pittsburgh and West Philly. He then shifted to a research position at Temple University’s medical school, where he coveted the more predictable hours of an office job.

But the pull of that slow-cooked pork adobo stew tanged with vinegar and soy lingered in his consciouness — and so did the example of his dad Gus’ long career as a chef in the Navy. Anies had grown up helping him with catering jobs, honing the family recipes. So, why not launch a Filipino food cart and become a part of a rising wave of cooks showcasing Pinoy flavors?

“I didn’t see enough people doing it in Philly at the time,” said Anies, now 31. “But I felt like we were on the cusp of something really cool.”

That realization was in 2018 — before he got a real taste of the restaurant business behind the line at Poi Dog, then launching Tabachoy as a food cart in 2019. He parked it often in front of his old employer at Temple, where he had a built-in fan club. The business grew steadily, and Anies finally opened Tabachoy as a brick-and-mortar BYOB with his wife, Maria, in December.

As I arrived at the new Tabachoy recently, its name traced in striking gold and red letters on the deep blue façade, “something cool” is what came to mind. The tiny pink dining room is minimalist. But it radiated the energy of a party as sizzle platters of crispy pork belly sisig topped with cracked eggs steamed their way to large groups at rustic wooden tables, where stacks of crisp lumpia and festive purple sundaes of ube soft-serve disappeared beneath the golden glow of Tabachoy’s neon pig.

The 28-seat Bella Vista location is so snug you need to access the bathroom through an outside door at the rear of the building. It had been Jembatan 5, an Indonesian restaurant, and was the longtime Italian lunch counter of Shank’s & Evelyn’s.

Tabachoy means “chubby” in Tagalog, a playful term of endearment in the Anies family, and the restaurant’s motto follows that theme: “heavy bellies, light hearts.” And if it’s pork belly you seek, Tabachoy’s lechon plays a starring role, not only chunked into crispy cubes for the sisig but as long white juicy slabs of tender flesh ribboned with creamy fat and a tawny border of roasted skin that snaps like candy.

Renderings from the pork adobo also anchor the country-style brown gravy that’s an irresistible dip alongside Anies’ signature fried chicken, which is notable because it isn’t breaded. It’s cooked in a soy-lacquered style reminiscent of Peking duck that’s crisped like parchment to finish – a nod to the Chinese influence on Filipino cuisine. Served on a banana leaf with tart atchara laces of pickled green papaya and carrot beside a fragrant bowl of garlic rice, it’s one of the most magnetic new chicken dishes in town.

I wish more BYOs would embrace a community beer fridge like the one near the four-seat chef’s counter here that offers complimentary beverages stocked by guests who leave their extras and grab something new. It also channels the spirit of shared experiences intrinsic to Tabachoy.

Anies is keenly aware that diners from Filipino backgrounds who come here inevitably bring their own flavor memories, gauging the texture, seasoning, and minuscule veggie garnishes of his refreshing pancit bihon rice noodles against their own. Tabachoy’s neatly rolled and carefully fried lumpia are easily among the best I’ve had. Still, I have Filipino friends who actually prefer the stuffings on their open-ended spring rolls to be more burnt.

Several Tabachoy dishes, though, call out traditional flavors but take detours that reflect Anies’ history as the biracial child of a military family who moved often (last stop Northern Virginia) and was rarely surrounded by Filipino communities.

“I don’t need to be as good as or better than your mom, aunty, and grandmother, because I can’t,” Anies says. “I’m here to pull some little bit of nostalgia, if I can, while trying to acclimate Philadelphians’ palates to Filipino food.”

If the tang on that pork adobo seems more mellow than expected, that’s because Anies’ dad developed it with sweeter balsamic, which was more accessible than the more typical cane vinegar in the galley kitchens of the Navy ships when he was serving across the Persian Gulf. His sinigang certainly does pack a sour tamarind smack. Still, it’s a deliberately lighter rendition of the soup, veering away from the usual pork base for salmon, inspired by a Filipino restaurant in Seattle he loved. The ukoy is a dramatic deconstruction of a shrimp and sweet potato fritter into a towering pile of fried roots and head-on shrimp, which was, ultimately, one of the blander dishes.

There’s little likelihood anyone’s tasted something like the Tabachoy caesar, because Anies invented it, subbing bagoong shrimp paste for anchovies in the dressing and dusting the crunchy Napa cabbage and mustard greens with shaved cured duck yolks, crunchy shallots, and a flicker of sesame-chili oil. Fantastic!

Tabachoy’s restaurant debut comes as Pinoy flavors are blooming in Philly with more diversity than ever. A few of the businesses that sparked Anies’ imagination in 2018 — LALO in the Bourse, Flow State Coffee Bar in Fishtown, and Lou Boquila’s Sarvida in Fishtown — didn’t survive the pandemic.

But Boquila’s pioneering Perla has kept the Kamayan feasts flowing on East Passyunk Avenue. Manila Cafe’s homey steam table of daily turo-turo (“point! point!”) specials remains a reliable draw to Mount Laurel.

The past year, however, there has been a surge of new options at all levels of the dining spectrum. The popular Filipino fast food chain, Jollibee, opened in Northeast Philadelphia to perpetually long lines for its fried chicken, sweet and smoky Filipino spaghetti with hotdogs, and irresistible mango-peach pies (order me a dozen, please!)

Kathy Mirano’s Tambayan is showcasing the soulful recipes of her Filipino childhood at a diner-style lunch counter at the Reading Terminal Market, where her savory hand pies, hearty bowls of arroz caldo, grilled meat skewers, and breakfast platters with garlic rice, fried eggs, and different meats, like the longsilog with longanisa sausage, taste like genuine home cooking. Mirano’s creative baked goods, with sweet macarons infused with strawberry and purple ube, are as memorable as the savory plates.

There are other projects, too, like Baby’s, the brick-and-mortar location for the modern Filipino supper club, Tita Emmie’s, expected in Brewerytown this summer to add more voices to the mix.

Inside Tabachoy’s bustling South Philly dining room, where Chance Anies has finally found his calling, the momentum to showcase updated Filipino flavors for the broadest audiences possible has picked up speed, one Tabachoy caesar, one ube soft-serve sundae, and one classic pork adobo at a time.

932 S. 10th St., https://www.tabachoyphilly.com/

Dinner Wednesday through Sunday, 5-9 p.m.

BYOB

Not wheelchair accessible, with two steps at the entrance. The bathroom is not accessible, either.

Gluten-free options are available.