Portland’s Old Town Chinatown has over the decades been home to Chinese and Japanese communities, and while it’s largely known as a tourist area, a smattering of longstanding Chinese-owned restaurants remain. A short walk south of here, in a former Victorian townhouse, is St Barbra Pinoy Bakery, founded by culinary-school friends Bob Osilla and Dennis Adams in 2016. When Bob first arrived from the Philippines in the 1980s, he would drive 250 miles to Seattle to find pandesal, a soft, fluffy bread roll that’s a Filipino breakfast staple. Today, he and his team bake them themselves, along with meaty empanadas and sweet-salty ensaymadas topped with cheese or ube (purple yam).
