Chef EmManuel Garcia Is Remixing Filipino Food at Baba’s House and Oakland’s newest speakeasy 13 Orphans

July 16, 2025
By Jennifer Redondo 

For a moment, forget overcrowded family gatherings with mahjong and drinking tables spilling from the house to the garage and backyard. As much as we love to party, let us introduce you to a different type of gathering. At Baba's House in Oakland, California, 13 Orphans offers an elevated Cantonese - Filipino experience unlike any other.

Imagine: delicious food, unique drinks, a karaoke stage, and friendly yet competitive mahjong games in the main den. In the back, the exclusive speakeasy demands a reservation, as limited seating means you'll need to secure your spot to enjoy this unique and unforgettable experience.

Baba's House appears unassuming from the outside. A restaurant occupies the downstairs, but venture upstairs to find a mahjong den with multiple tables. From there, a secret passage leads to the 13 Orphans Speakeasy bar. It was at this speakeasy that we encountered Emmanuel Garcia, co-owner, chef, and the Filipino influence behind both Baba's House and 13 Orphans.

1. Tell us about yourself.

I am the chef and part owner for Baba's House and 13 Orphans. I've been cooking for 16 years. I was born and raised in the Bay Area in South City (South San Francisco). I've been in Oakland for five years now. I started my career working at a Japanese restaurant while enrolled at the Art Institute’s culinary program. I ended up dropping out of school because I realized it didn't make sense to pay to learn how to cook when I was already getting paid to learn how to cook at the same time. As a young 19 year old, I decided to make money rather than pay for school. I never enjoyed or did well in school so it just made more sense for me to leave. 

I attribute a lot of my knowledge and experience from the first Japanese restaurant that I worked at. They really took a chance on me. I worked almost every position. I was a busser, server, dish, prep, line, sous chef, front of house manager – basically worked everything except bartender and head chef. I got to a point where I wasn’t growing anymore and I wasn’t going to take the head chef’s job. Being young, I was also impatient. All I could think about was moving up, moving up, moving up, moving up! That was my mindset back then, so I left to pursue my career. 

Even though I worked mainly at Japanese restaurants, I worked in tons of different restaurants making different types of cuisine. Eventually, I moved to Los Angeles to take a corporate job with Tender Greens, and then got a job doing poke and sushi. After that, I ended up being the head chef with a restaurant group for a few years. That's where I started to try my hand at Filipino food. I wasn’t professionally taught how to make Filipino food, mainly because back then, there just weren't many places doing it. I was asking my mom and dad a lot of questions about the food that I grew up with, trying to apply techniques that I've learned through my training, through school, and all of the restaurants that I worked at.

In 2021, a chef friend of mine from LA was moving up to the Bay Area, and he was opening a restaurant and asked me if I would be interested. During that time, I had been doing pop-ups. I have been out of the restaurants for a while, but I felt like it was the perfect time for me to get back in. I had been trying to figure out how to do my own thing for so long, and this opportunity fell in my lap. That’s how I got started with Baba’s House. 

In the last eight years, I have been exploring more of my Filipino identity and thinking of ways to incorporate it into what I do and what I make. With 13 Orphans, we are introducing Filipino elements, blending it with Cantonese cuisine. 

2. What is Baba’s House and 13 Orphans? 

Baba’s House and 13 Orphans is co-owned by me, Jenn Lui and Alan Chen. We met up in 2023 to talk about what working together could look like. Six months later, June 2024, they asked me if I would be interested in coming back to Baba’s House. Baba’s House is downstairs, which is focused on food. Then there’s 13 Orphans upstairs, which is our speakeasy bar experience and mahjong den. 

In the last few years, Oakland has really been struggling to recover from the pandemic. We realized that we needed to be a destination spot for people. That’s how we came up with 13 Orphans. We started to host occasional mahjong nights, and they became really popular. Due to the demand, we kept at it and decided to focus on mahjong full time.

Jenn is very inspired by traditional Chinese medicine and tea culture, and she wanted to bring those elements into 13 Orphans. You can see this through the drink elixirs that she’s concocted. 13 Orphans is a curated experience which requires reservations. We want our customers to have ample time to enjoy the bar, food, and atmosphere – it’s an entire experience. 

Outside of the speakeasy bar, we have a mahjong den that has multiple tables and a stage to sing karaoke. There are so many parallels between Chinese, Taiwanese, and Filipino culture. This includes mahjong, karaoke, and of course food and drinks.  

3. How are you representing Filipino culture at Baba’s House and 13 Orphans?

I'm very passionate about being Filipino, especially the culinary part of it. I'm really interested in food that goes beyond what they call “Tagalog food” (adobo, tocino, pancit). I've really been interested in learning more about our regional cuisines. There are so many provinces in the Philippines and there's so many different variations of food. I want to explore and introduce foods that people aren’t familiar with, like the kinilaw that we serve at 13 Orphans. I do a very Visayan version where I use a lot of coconut. I also wanted to dive deeper into the Chinese influence on Filipino food. At 13 Orphans, we serve siumai with toyomansi (soy sauce + calamansi), which is how I had it growing up. 

I’ve been doing a lot of research and I am excited to draw inspiration during my upcoming trip to the Philippines. I want to introduce more regional Filipino food tied in with some Chinese elements. That’s not going to be difficult to do since there’s a lot of Chinese influence on Filipino cuisine already, which is what we are already doing at 13 Orphans. 

As far as Baba’s House, stay tuned to see what’s upcoming on the menu. We’ve been collaborating with a lot of other chefs recently. Many chefs are competitive, but I realized that there’s space for all of us to exist. I want to support, provide a platform, and celebrate others’ talents together, as I believe in collaboration over competition. 

I’d like to have a much stronger Filipino presence on our menu at Baba’s House. Those changes are starting to happen on our menu now and will definitely continue! I’m traveling to a few different places in the Philippines this month, and am hoping to bring a lot of inspiration from my experience on the trip. 

4. What is Filipino - American cuisine? 

I always specify that I cook Filipino - American food. It’s food that I’ve created through my own lens. I am not trying to mimic or replace the home cooked meals that we intimately know and grew up with! That’s not what I am trying to do. 

My experience with Filipino food has mainly been through home cooked meals I learned from my parents and grandma. I am figuring out how to bring some restaurant techniques into the home recipes that I am trying to reinvent with my own twist. When I first started cooking, I got a lot of pushback. I got a lot of comments about how “this is not what adobo is supposed to be like” or “that’s not how my mom makes adobo”. Now, more and more people are becoming more open to Asian fusion dishes. There are a lot more modern Filipino restaurants opening up. Filipino - Americans are growing up, making money, and choosing to dine at these Filipino - American establishments and food experiences. I am focused on bringing my full self to Baba's House. Being Filipino is a really big part of who I am and I would really like that to show more through my food.

5. When and how can people come to Baba’s House to enjoy the 13 Orphans Speakeasy experience?

As of now, Friday and Saturdays. Reservations open a month in advance. Fill out the Google form to make a reservation. You have the option to pick elixirs only (cocktail, mocktail, wine glass or wine flights) or elixir + dim sum set. The dim sum set currently comes with Visayan Kinilaw, Chinoy Siumai, and Nami-Doufu, but those will be rotating regularly. The dim sum sets are only available with advance reservations. A la carte will be available to order at the Speakeasy. 

There are two seatings available: 7:00 and 8:30 PM. The intimate speakeasy only seats 16 at a time, and walk-ins are welcomed if space allotted, with one drink minimum + discounted 13 Orphans mahjong den entry fee. Outside of your scheduled reservation, you are welcome to experience everything the mahjong den has to offer (normal hours are 6pm - 10pm).

6. What is your favorite Filipino food? 

My top three: Tortang Talong, Kare Kare, and Tocino. I didn't purposely mean for these to all have familial ties, but I love the way my mom makes tortang talong. Nobody else can do it the same as the way my mom makes it. I also love my dad’s kare kare. He actually roasts whole peanuts for the flavor and extra texture. When my dad cooks, it's like a whole day thing because he's doing everything the right way with no shortcuts. It takes him a long time to do it, but it's so good. 

My third favorite is my grandma’s tocino. When I was a kid, my grandma used to travel from my dad’s siblings' houses in Chicago then come visit us in the Bay Area. She would stay for a month or two, and make huge batches of homemade tocino. She would make enough for us to freeze and enjoy while she was gone. 

She passed away in 2020 and that’s when I knew it was time to lock in and start cooking Filipino food. I always thought it was fascinating that she made her own tocino. She didn't use any food coloring. I never got the recipe from my grandma, but I did try to make it for my dad and all of his siblings to help me figure out how she made it. I’ve tried many iterations and I have gotten pretty close. 

7. Where can people find you? 

You can find me on Instagram @emannotemon @thisisbabas.house and @13orphanslounge. Baba’s House is located at 410 15th Street in Oakland, California. Come see us!

All photos are courtesy of Chef Emannuel Garcia.

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Written by Jennifer Redondo

Co-Founder and Co-Author of In Her Purpose

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