Celebrating AAPI Heritage
Month in Ravenswood | |
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
May is Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month! We’re taking time to celebrate by highlighting just a few of the AAPI-owned businesses that help make Ravenswood the special place it is. Our neighborhood is stronger, more welcoming, and more interesting because of the people who bring their ideas, traditions, creativity, and hard work into this community every day.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve had the pleasure of sitting down with several local business owners to hear about their paths, what inspires their work, and what it means to build something meaningful here in Ravenswood. As always, these conversations left us energized and reminded us that every small business carries a story.
Through sharing culture, creating gathering spaces, introducing new ideas, and building connections across communities, these business owners are helping to shape Ravenswood in ways that go far beyond their storefronts. Celebrating those contributions—and the diversity that makes neighborhoods thrive—feels especially meaningful this month.
We hope you enjoy getting to know these business owners and their stories, and that this feature inspires you to stop in, show your support, and celebrate the many ways diverse cultural perspectives enrich Ravenswood year-round.
Yours in service,
Grace Pulliam + Christina Pecce
GRCC Outreach Coordinator + Associate Director
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Anna Ong, Anna's Thai Kitchen
In a previous life, Anna Ong was an accountant. Today, neighbors know her best as Anna from Anna’s Thai Kitchen, the celebrated local eatery named 2025’s Best Thai Restaurant in Chicago by BusinessRate. We had the privilege of sitting down with Anna on a Friday before she officially opened doors for the dinner crowd; while we spoke, she prepared and later served us a mix of must-try menu staples.
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"Now in her fifth year as a restaurant owner, Anna describes her mindset with ease: 'Every day is a new day.'
It’s impressive to learn that Anna isn’t a trained chef, but a home cook drawing from her mother’s traditional recipes - impressive, but not entirely surprising:
each dish speaks to authentic, home-based roots."
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Thien Tran, Minh Hearing Solutions
When I sit down with Thien Tran, owner and practitioner at Minh Hearing Solutions, he’s just moved into a new office at Regus on Ravenswood. Minh Hearing Solutions has just wrapped a successful first year in business, and year two promises to bring expansions that the community has every reason to be excited about. Thien, who has used hearing aid devices since childhood, spent years working at other hearing health practices before deciding to start his own.
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"When it comes to addressing hearing health challenges and being connected to the right resources, it’s critical to give each patient ample time and attention.
'It’s not one size fits all,' Thien says. 'Every client has different needs. I wouldn’t approach a ninety-year-old patient in the same way I would approach a two-year-old, and vice versa.'"
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Justin Lerias, Del Sur Bakery
It’s a Friday afternoon – off hours – when we walk into Del Sur Bakery. Justin Lerias is in the compact bakery kitchen, putting the finishing touches on a test pastry with veteran ease, tan apron speckled with flour. It’s been a little over a year since Del Sur opened its doors on Damen Ave; in that time, Justin and his teammates have undeniably achieved local celebrity status, but remain downright down to earth.
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"Justin cut his teeth in other pastry kitchens around the city. Opening Del Sur was a matter of needing to carve his own path; those previous roles, he explains, 'didn’t feel like me'.
He tells me that the story of Del Sur Bakery is also the story of Justin Lerias—in a broader sense, it rhymes with the stories of immigrants across America. 'I am Filipino, but I’m also American.'"
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Jinny Choi, Bunny Ears Art House
Bunny Ears Art House is a different kind of creative space for kids. When you walk in, you can feel the difference: everything about this place is designed for the senses, to stimulate imagination and play.
Walking in, I notice snail-themed centerpieces on each miniature table set; Jinny, the owner of Bunny Ears, tells me with enthusiasm that the kids are learning about snails this week.
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"Jinny shares that celebrating diversity and encouraging curiosity is a guiding principle of Bunny Ears Art House. This is a space where kids can freely express themselves and explore their sense of identity.
She recalls a line from a review that stuck with her early on: 'This is a place where kids can be themselves.'"
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Raquel & Lawrence Letrero, Bayan Ko
True blue service industry veterans Raquel Quadreny and Lawrence Letrero have always been busy people. “We always dreamed of having a place of our own,” Raquel tells me, recounting the story of how Bayan Ko came to be. For them, blending elements of Filipino and Cuban cuisine was a natural way to honor their respective cultural backgrounds. Through cooking together at home, they came to identify a host of similarities between the two cuisines: “It just kind of worked well together.”
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"Fusion food is frequently made on the proverbial tightrope, but Bayan Ko’s menu takes care to please fans of traditional Cuban cuisine, fans of traditional Filipino cuisine, and everyone in-between.
When I ask her about the dish that 'became' the prototype for Bayan Ko, Raquel offers two without hesitation: the adobo wings and the lechon, both now iconic staples under the Bayan Ko name."
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Dr. Mike Demetria, Francis Enriquez, & Ryan Basa, BRB Aesthetics Central
BRB Aesthetics Central has just celebrated its first anniversary when we sit down with managing partners Dr. Mike Demetria, Francis Enriquez, and Ryan Basa. Though this holistic med spa has only been in the neighborhood for one year, it feels as welcoming and as beloved as though it’s been around for ten. Dr. Mike, Francis, and Ryan explain, with the cadence of old friends, that their ties to each other go far back.
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"But their reasoning—their 'why'–runs deep with community roots. Dr. Mike explains that the three originally became connected through their involvement in pockets of Chicago’s gay community.
There was, from the beginning, an investment in creating spaces that feel safe and inclusive to groups who may feel unwelcome and unsafe in other establishments. This became the motivator behind BRB Aesthetics."
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