By Will Tigley
There’s a new Filipino breakfast spot opening in Calgary this month. PandeJoe, located on 10th Street and 20th Avenue in the northwest, is bringing a variety of Filipino products to start everyone’s morning.
Fernando Cala and Joe Cortes are the owners behind the new café which officially opened on February 17.
“We’ve spent about two months trying out products and drinks and getting staff ready,” says Cala. “We’re now ready to provide Calgary with our all-day breakfast and highlight our specialty coffee.”
The specialty coffee featured at PandeJoe are mostly blends from the Philippines. The two the café will focus on are Barako, which is the most popular variety grown from the coastal provinces of Batangas and Cavite, and Benguet which is cultivated in the highland provinces or the cordillera mountains.
“Benguet coffee is actually on the endangered food species list,” explains Cala. “Not a lot of people consume it, so farmers opt to grow other crops. We want to do our part to promote it so we can save the variety by increasing consumption and demand.”
While PandeJoe will offer other drinks including specialty and Japanese teas, they’ll continue to build coffee drinks like lattes and cappuccinos that are still based on the Barako and Benguet beans.
As a breakfast spot, Cala and Cortes also have Filipino food ready to serve focusing on their exclusive pandesal. The recipe along with many of the other baked products come from Cortes’ family’s tradition of baking, having owned a large bakery in the Philippines with a history of over 75 years.
“As per our café’s name, we want to be known for our pandesal,” says Cala. “We’ve created a small pandesal for sliders and a bigger burger sized version for sandwiches. We want to get a lot more innovative with our pandesal products.”
Pan de Joe’s sandwiches are what you would expect form a café, with tuna melts, ham and cheese and egg salad all available, but the owners are hoping to quickly introduce more Filipino-inspired proteins like longganisa and adobo on their menu.
For now, their breakfasts will be primarily sandwich-based as well as offer a few pancake dishes.
The food will be supplemented by an assortment of pastries, some which are common for cafes, but also a few Filipino-inspired like sylvanas, mamon and ensaymadas to showcase their heritage.
“We want to bring Filipino food out to a broader market and be part of the community we’re in,” says Cala. “We want to bring great flavours to life and we believe Filipino flavours are great flavours that should be enjoyed.”
PandeJoe has already been introduced to Calgary as part of the BGF Kitchen family which was testing some of its food with customers last year during festivals like Moonlight Market and Fiesta Filipino. The new cafe is the culmination of the product development launched last year in May.
“Like any kitchen, think of us as home where you can taste freshly made and hand-crafted meals,” says Cala.
For more information visit PandeJoe on their Instagram and Facebook pages.
