Kanin operates as a bodega rather than a sit-down restaurant, stacking musubi and bento boxes on Damen Avenue in Lincoln Square, right next to Side Practice Coffee. The menu leans on Hawaiian snack-shop staples filtered through Filipino flavors — musubi and ube banana pudding have both built a following among regulars.
Chef Julius Tacadena didn't come up through a traditional kitchen path; he moved from nursing into recruiting before food became the constant, eventually launching Krackish Snack Co. with his brother while still cooking on the side. A run of pop-ups across Chicago led him to Francis Almeda, and the two opened Kanin's first brick-and-mortar together. The space is small and demand has followed it from the pop-up days into its permanent home.
Chef Julius Tacadena didn't come up through a traditional kitchen path; he moved from nursing into recruiting before food became the constant, eventually launching Krackish Snack Co. with his brother while still cooking on the side. A run of pop-ups across Chicago led him to Francis Almeda, and the two opened Kanin's first brick-and-mortar together. The space is small and demand has followed it from the pop-up days into its permanent home.