Famous Filipino cafe comes to Toronto for the first time this week
An ultra-popular cafe based in the Philippines is soon setting up shop in Toronto for a limited time with the help of an equally celebrated local restaurant.
As far as coffee shops in Makati City (a small city in the Philippines within the Metro Manila area) go, they don't come much cooler than Annex House.
Located in the stylish Poblacion neighbourhood — described to me by Annex House's Toronto team as the "Queen West of Manila" — the cafe-by-day, bar-by-night concept comes by its name quite literally, located in a former home.
Nowadays, rather than housing locals, the two-storey building houses a bar, coffee shop, design studio and a to-die-for alley patio, cementing it as a home for local creatives to work, play and connect.
It's the stuff that urban foodie dreams are made of, hindered only by its location halfway across the world. Until this week, that is.
As of Thursday, Nov. 13, people in Toronto will be able to experience the magic of Annex House for themselves, without spending 17 hours and large sums of money on air travel.
The driving force behind it all is Justin Rejano, Chief Operations Officer of Toronto's Chronic Ink Tattoos, who fell in love with the concept upon being introduced to founders Brian and Liana on a trip to the Philippines in early 2025.
"There were so many Toronto artists and creatives visiting, it felt like a piece of Toronto in Poblacion," Rejano explains. "From having the coffee in the garden and having the cocktails and music, I knew it needed to come to Toronto."
Before his trip was over, Rejano had Brian and Liana's blessing to bring Annex House to North America, and he set to work building a team as equally passionate about the concept as he was.
"We all went to the Philippines earlier this year, and just fell in love with the space and the vibe and the ethos of the place being a hub for creatives to connect, work out of and then celebrate later in the night as well," David Candelaria, Annex House Toronto's Creative Director, tells blogTO.
"That's what inspired us to take a little piece of home, back home here."
Better yet, they've found the perfect home for Toronto residents to get what the Toronto team is calling their "first sip" of Annex House Manila on Canadian soil: Parkdale's beloved BB's.
On Rejano's search to find a home for Annex House Toronto, he met with BB's owner Justin Bella, who offered his restaurant — which, up until now, has been closed during the day on weekdays — as a home to launch Annex House's coffee program in the city.
A perfect partnership indeed, Annex House will take over the space Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and serve a coffee program to support BB's brunch service from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays and Saturdays.
While Annex House Manila transitions into a bar at night, the Toronto version — at least for now — will be exclusively coffee-centric, pairing a full suite of espresso-based beverages with Filipino-inspired specialties like Ube Lattes and a Toronto-exclusive matcha menu.
"We want to honour the traditions and honour the spirit and obviously their flavours and their recipes, we have to do them justice and use what they use and deliver the same quality that they deliver in Manila," Candelaria says.
Beyond ensuring that the physical product translates well in the Canadian market, the team behind Annex House Toronto is eager to preserve the community atmosphere that made them fall in love with Annex House in the first place as they bring it to Toronto.
"We all kind of came together from different friend groups, each in our own ways thinking, 'oh, I kind of want to reconnect with my roots,'" Carissa Vicencio, Annex House Toronto's Project and Social Media Manager, tells blogTO.
"I feel like there's just no space that's unapologetically Filipino. There are so many great coffee shops, so much great coworking, but nothing that kind of celebrates us as a community." It's a hole that, Carissa and the team believe, can be filled by Annex House Toronto.
Appropriately, that's exactly the energy that BB's has enthusiastically brought to the neighbourhood for years: enthusiastically, proudly Filipino in a way that welcomes everyone, regardless of their background, to get in on the party.
BB's and Annex House Toronto are located at 5 Brock Ave.
@annexhousemanila/Instagram
