Nica and Robin St. Laurent are the owners of Chibog Express by Danny's Kitchen, a new Filipino-Canadian restaurant downtown.--NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
After years of working out of their home, Nica and Robin St. Laurent have opened their first restaurant.
The couple opened Chibog Express by Danny’s Kitchen on Jan. 6 and have been offering a variety of Filipino-Canadian favourites to Hatters since.
“We’re steady so far and people have started to hear about us,” Nica said. “We’re seeing lots of new faces and we’re happy to be open.”
The restaurant offers Filipino food with a Canadian fusion – recipes Nica has worked on for years.
“My household is 75 per cent Canadian, so I need to make things they like and that I like,” she said. “I started making recipes and dishes so that everyone would be happy eating it.
“I want to introduce people to food that I ate growing up, because a lot of people have never tried Filipino food.”
Nica and Robin are new to the restaurant business, but spent the time to build it.
“We started in our house seven years ago,” he said. “We were sitting down at the table wrapping spring rolls and we talked about owning a restaurant one day.
“Nica came here to see about selling items at a market and ended up talking with the landlord here. They talked and looked at the place, we renovated and now we’re here.”
The business was named after a very special person to Nica.
“Danny is my dad and he is the one who taught me how to love food,” she said. “There were so many days where he’d take me out for different foods. Every Sunday after church back home, we always went to the same spot to eat food.
“He passed away years ago, so I thought it would be nice to have him in the name.”
The word Chibog means ‘food’ or ‘eats’ in Filipino and the pair says the menu will continually evolve over the next few months.
Every order is made fresh and can take some time, considering they are working out of a smaller kitchen. For those who can’t wait for an order, call in ahead to make arrangements at 403-487-2422.
The business is located at 401 Third St. SE and can be found on Facebook and Instagram.
