{"id":266623,"date":"2025-09-30T13:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/266623\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:42:14","slug":"crumbs-nd-creams-chicagos-1st-silvana-shop-opens-in-albany-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/266623\/","title":{"rendered":"Crumbs.nd.Creams, Chicago’s 1st Silvana Shop, Opens In Albany Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY PARK \u2014 While many people baked sourdough bread during lockdown in 2020, Katrina Requiron dove into making silvanas, or Filipino sandwich cookies, for her family and friends.<\/p>\n

The silvanas \u2014 made with crunchy cashew meringue wafers and a buttercream filling and coated in cookie crumbs \u2014 were a hit, Requiron said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like [a sister cookie] to macaroons,\u201d Requiron said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Silvanas are Filipino sweet sandwich cookies made with crunchy cashew meringue wafers and a buttercream filling and coated in cookie crumbs. Credit: Provided<\/p>\n

After encouragement from loved ones, Requiron and her husband, Mharloe, began selling their homemade silvanas to people around the Chicago area, often meeting in places like the Seafood City Supermarket parking lot in North Mayfair for dessert dropoffs.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also sold silvanas at pop-up markets, Filipino events and places like Kanin, a Hawaiian-Filipino eatery in Ravenswood<\/a>, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our friends and customers have been telling us and giving us advice [to] open the store \u2026 but we were scared,\u201d Requiron said. \u201cCan we handle it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Requiron and her family took a leap of faith and opened the doors to their own brick-and-mortar shop, Crumbs.nd.Creams, in Albany Park. It\u2019s the city\u2019s first silvana house.<\/p>\n

Crumbs.nd.Creams, 4825 N. Pulaski Road, is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday.<\/p>\n

When the shop officially opened Sept. 13, there was already a line outside. The North Side neighborhood has a strong Filipino community, and it\u2019s where most of their longtime customers reside, said the Requirons, who live in suburban Algonquin.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ube is one of the flan flavors the Requiron family offers at Crumbs.nd.Creams, 4825 N. Pulaski Road. Credit: Provided<\/p>\n

During the first week of business, the couple made about 1,500 cookies per day \u2014 alongside batches of flan \u2014 with the help of their coworkers, including their kids, Sophia and Jaden, who help out sometimes when they\u2019re not in school.<\/p>\n

Requiron learned her classic silvana recipe from her grandmother, and she\u2019s added 10 other flavors to the menu by experimenting on her own: blueberry, ube, matcha, mocha, nutteryana, butter pecan, Nutella, coconut jam, flan and buko pandan.<\/p>\n

The Requiron family\u2019s friends would taste each flavor and let them know if it was good enough to sell, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t release new flavors without them approving it,\u201d Requiron said. \u201cOne of the flavors that I always told everyone made me cry was the mocha because it\u2019s \u2026 more of a Filipino mocha. So we have to get it just right where Filipinos are very familiar to it. \u2026 They sent me back maybe five times because I just couldn\u2019t get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making silvanas can be tedious, taking about a week of preparation, Requiron said. That\u2019s because the couple whips up their own buttercream and ube jam, and they roast and grind cashews for the crumbs.<\/p>\n

The cookies also have to be frozen for at least 24 hours to achieve the proper consistency.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lot of labor \u2014 but a lot of love, too, the couple said.<\/p>\n

\"\"A line for Crumbs.nd.Creams, 4825 N. Pulaski Road, stretched down the block on the shop\u2019s grand opening Sept. 13, 2025. Credit: Provided<\/p>\n

Much of the shop is also constructed by hand, including wooden shelving along the walls, which Requiron cut and put together, she said.<\/p>\n

Artificial plants and florals around the shop remind Requiron of her uncle\u2019s home in the Philippines. It had a fence that \u201coverflowed\u201d with flowers, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [my friends] came here, they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my God, this feels like your house,’\u201d Requiron said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I was going for.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the couple was nervous for their grand opening \u2014 and so busy with putting the shop together that they neglected marketing, they said \u2014 they were warmly welcomed by the neighborhood, they said. There was a line down the block when the shop opened that morning, and they sold out of silvanas that Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDriving here, I was nervous,\u201d Mharloe said. \u201cThen the moment I pulled up, there was a line already. I was just in awe, and I had low-key tears \u2026 just seeing that support that we have from our OG customers, the new customers, the neighbors here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the most rewarding feeling I ever felt that Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The team behind Chicago\u2019s first silvana house, Crumbs.nd.Creams, 4825 N. Pulaski Road. Credit: Provided<\/p>\n

The couple is also excited to share Filipino culture and food with even more people, especially those who aren\u2019t very familiar with it, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best part is that we get to introduce to not just our Filipino community, but now spreading it to every ethnicity that\u2019s not familiar,\u201d Mharloe said. \u201cThat is our main goal. I mean, we love our Filipino community, but we want to introduce this to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the turnaround for the shop has been quick \u2014 they signed the lease just three months ago in June \u2014 they\u2019re already thinking of ways to grow the business. The couple hopes to start shipping silvanas next year, though keeping them frozen during the journey can be difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow thankful we are to the community, to our fans, our supporters, our friends, our families,\u201d Mharloe said. \u201cThey have backed us up in everything. \u2026 Just very thankful and blessed that everyone is here, has showed up and showed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY PARK \u2014 While many people baked sourdough bread during lockdown in 2020, Katrina Requiron dove into making…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":266624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[64,960,5386,1818,988],"class_list":{"0":"post-266623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-restaurants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115293543312780831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}