Missing the comfort of Filipino food after long shifts at the hospital, these three nurses opened their own restaurant in Manhattan’s Upper East Side
Imagine this: you're coming off from a difficult, twelve-hour night shift at the hospital at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. After such a gruelling shift, you and your friends just want some breakfast, something familiar and comforting, just like how mum used to make. But with no restaurants nearby serving that home-cooked cuisine, you guys decide to take matters into your own hands and do it yourself.
That is exactly what nurses Jude Canela, Joan Calanog, and Maricris Dinopol chose to do when they opened their restaurant Bilao, located close to their hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
"When we got off from work, we were so hungry, and we were craving Filipino food," said nurse Jude Canela, on why the three friends decided to start a new business. While most Filipino restaurants in New York City are clustered in Queens, Jude and friends found it too difficult and draining to commute all the way there after a full shift just for a delicious, classic Filipino breakfast. ]
Opened in August of 2020, Bilao serves up Filipino breakfasts that brings to the Upper East Side the home-cooked flavours of garlic rice, tapa, longganisa, and many other silog combinations that make for a hearty, soothing, and nostalgic breakfast.
Serving others quality food, and nursing are similar, in a sense, where both involve caring for people and seeing them well and happy. This seems to be the driving force and ethos behind Bilao and its founders. "That is what we're good at. Taking care of people," says Canela.
NOW READ
6 Decadent Filipino Ingredients You Should Know: Asin Tibuok, Taba ng Talangka, and More
Notable Food Regions in the Philippines (and the Dishes to Try When You Visit)
Villa Frantzén, Chef Björn FranFrantzén'sest Restaurant, Opens in Bangkok