New Wheaton restaurant Maypole features Filipino-inspired menu

Chad and Alicia Hauge and Mike Melazzo hadn’t really planned on opening a restaurant. The team’s hands were full with Common Good Cocktail House in Glen Ellyn, which they’d been running since 2018 with inventive and fun cocktails and a desire to create deeper connections. But then chef Bridget Vanaman said yes.

“There was a group of people in the Glen Ellyn community who were interested in seeing us do something else,” said Chad Hauge, Alicia Hauge’s husband and beverage director and co-owner of the new Wheaton restaurant Maypole. “We reached out to Chef Bridget and when she responded positively, we were so surprised and excited to work with someone so incredible.”

Vanaman met the Common Good team members back in 2013 when she was working at Ruxbin restaurant in West Town and helped open the restaurant Mott St., also in West Town.

Vanaman has family in the western suburbs and now has a toddler so was looking to move out of the city. When she visited the Maypole space and instantly felt inspired, it wasn’t long before she signed on and had a menu ready. The restaurant opened Thursday at 121 W. Front St. in downtown Wheaton.

“Seeing how big the community was out here and how welcoming everyone was, it was meaningful to me,” said Vanaman, Maypole’s executive chef and co-owner. “Their philosophy behind hospitality was right in line with what I wanted to do with food, so it just kind of clicked.”

Vanaman, who was born in the Philippines and grew up in the United States, created a menu that is representative of her heritage. She hopes it’ll lay the groundwork for community gatherings and celebrations, so you’ll find meals served family style and even set meals for two.

The must-order item is the fried chicken thighs marinated in toyomansi, a mix of Filipino soy sauce and calamansi juice. Although you can order the chicken as part of a rice bowl, on a bao or even on an ube waffle during brunch, Vanaman recommends ordering it in a sandwich dressed with Asian slaw, spicy pickles and garlic aioli. It’s her homage to the chicken sandwich from Filipino chain Jollibee, a sandwich Vanaman says is “perfection.”

“Like in most forms of art, the more specific you get, the more universal it becomes,” said Alicia Hauge, director of operations, co-owner and designer of the space. “Words like ‘ube’ or ‘longganisa’ or ‘pancit’ might be unfamiliar to the western suburbs, but there’s an opportunity to connect with it because it was very specifically comforting to chef.”

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Dishes rooted in Vanaman’s memories and experiences are the backbone of the menu. You’ll find a pork belly adobo with bold flavors that made Chad Hauge “cry a little bit in joy” because it reminded him of American comfort food. The team’s favorites include calamansi pie and the lumpia spring rolls, which come from a recipe passed down through Vanaman’s family and are often hand-crafted by her mother and sister.

“I want to gather people and expose them to foods that are super important to me and at the same time be approachable and fun for people who might not be too familiar with the flavors of the Philippines or Southeast Asia,” Vanaman said.

Although the large cocktail menu at Common Good changes seasonally and leans experimental, you’ll find a tighter beverage selection at Maypole that draws inspiration from the menu, such as a calamansi margarita, an ube lemongrass aviation cocktail or a clarified dragon fruit cosmo. Beer and wine are available, and if you’re a part of Maypole’s members-only Subourbon whiskey bar, you can nosh on Vanaman’s creations in the basement beverage club.

“It’s fun to try and be inspired and match the energy of someone else’s creative work,” said Melazzo, a co-owner.

Maypole is in a historic building, but the interiors play with a spring theme that counters the dark and heavy elements of the building to instead feel playful and relaxed with pops of color, funky wallpaper and block printing.

Like with its other projects, the team hopes Maypole is a place where the community can gather comfortably around food and drink without it feeling pretentious. In fact, the restaurant’s name is inspired by the maypole located in the center of communities erected during springtime celebrations, a European tradition that was adopted globally.

“We don’t want to be caught up in making our product precious and elevated above the community but creating something that focuses on people gathering and people coming together and celebrating,” Alicia Hauge said. “We open our doors because it’s from the heart and we want people to experience and enjoy life together.”