L’incontro Hosts Filipino Food Pop-Up
Juneil Cabreza's Bad English menu, featured every Monday, revives his former food truck's offerings.
Site of L’incontro, 2315 N. Murray Ave. Photo taken April 18, 2024
Ahead of L’incontro‘s opening on the East Side, Chef Juneil Cabreza promised traditional Italian dishes infused with Asian influences, particularly inspired by his Filipino roots.
Now, just over 10 months into service, Cabreza is dedicating one night a week to fully embrace his heritage with his Bad English pop-up.
The special menu, available Monday nights from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., marks a revival of Cabreza’s former food truck, offering a rotating selection of Filipino favorites including lumpia, street noodles and the fan-favorite longanisa smashburger.
The pop-up also introduces guests to ulam, described as “something to eat with rice” — a staple of Filipino cuisine. The dish includes pickled vegetables, sawsawan dipping sauce, crispy shallots and a choice of pork sausage and fried egg, eggplant with banana ketchup, chicken adobo or mushroom adobo.
Finger foods such as chicken skewers and garlic fries and sweets like turon (fried banana and jackfruit) and peach mango pie are also available, along with Kagatan, a Filipino cocktail made with cold brew coffee, sweetened condensed milk and rum.
Much of the Bad English menu was featured at Cabreza’s food truck with the same name, which debuted in 2019 at Boone & Crockett.
In addition to running his own food business, Cabreza has worked at a number of local establishments including Izumi’s, Tenuta’s Italian Restaurant, Honeypie, Blue Jacket, AP Bar & Kitchen, Movida, Hotel Madrid and Tavolino.
After the latter closed abruptly in October 2023, Cabreza joined forces with Izzy Hops manager Paul Piotrowski to launch L’incontro in the space, 2315 N. Murray Ave. The restaurant opened its doors in April 2024 with a pasta-focused menu including riffs like cacio e pepe made with black sesame spaghetti and rigatoni with kimchi vodka sauce.
L’incontro is open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. The Bad English pop-up is held every Monday and follows the same hours, or until sold out.
Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
