Photo by Neidy Gutierrez / SOC Images.
You might have heard of Panaderya Salvajē.
And that might have been by spotting their iconic pink box or ogling at their dripping ube latte croissants on their Instagram. Maybe you—or someone you know—has waited on their lines, which sometimes trickles down the block well before their 8 a.m. opening.
But behind the lines, viral video reviews and “top 5” articles calling them New Jersey’s “hottest new bakery,” there’s owners Nicu Dalman and Mikee Uychiat, who both told Slice of Culture that they’re beyond grateful for the support and, at the end of the day, they just want the chance to continue to showcase the diverse flavors of the Philippines—in different tastes, shapes and forms—to a community who cares.
“I just want them to come in here [and] be open enough to try the food that we have. It’s not like any other bakery,” Uychiat told Slice of Culture. “… I want everyone to feel welcome. They may not be Filipino, and that’s okay. Not all of our food is Filipino, but I want ’em to feel the Filipino hospitality still… [Even if] you just wanna say hi [and] just wanna grab coffee.”
Dalman smiled and added, “As soon as we opened [on Aug. 17, 2025], I was like, ‘We made the right choice in staying in Jersey.’ It felt right, you know? [During the grand opening] we were like, ‘We made the right call.’”
PUHON (‘In God’s Time’)
“Panaderya” translates to bakery and “salvaje” means savage or naughty in Tagalog and wild in Spanish. But in the Philippines, they also use “salvaje” to call a hardheaded kid, which is what Dalman said he always got called growing up.
“I used to do sourdough bread. So I felt like ‘salvaje’ and wild—like wild yeast—kind of made sense. But also I wanted to take back [the meaning of ‘salvaje’] something that’s very personal to me, because this is very personal to me and to Mikee. So I wanted something to really connect,” Dalman added.
And if you ask the husband-wife duo how Panaderya Salvajē started, you’ll probably get one of two versions. The first version, often told by Dalman, starts in 2020.
In 2020, as everyone was losing their jobs and suffering some type of struggle, Dalman was stuck at home in Houston, Texas while Uychiat was stuck in London, England. Dalman, who comes from a culinary background, started experimenting with making siopao—a Filipino steam bun filled with sweet-savory meat—to “chokehold” other culinary competition, he laughed while explaining, and then Uychiat, who comes from a nursing background, suggested making piaya—a Filipino flatbread filled with muscovado sugar and water—like they used to do back home in Bacolod, a city in the northwestern island of the Philippines.
From there, they sold it to Dalman’s sister’s friends who worked in the hospital and local titas “just to cover costs” and fill his time. But once more people got wind of the products, they started adding more items and landed their first popup in April of 2020 in Houston.
“I didn’t know what to expect. It was just like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be here, you know, if you show up, show up,’” Dalman reminisced.
“And then the owner of the coffee shop was like, ‘Hey, look at the security cameras. There’s so many people.’ I was like, ‘What? What do you mean?’ … We didn’t have any utensils, no boxes. We ended up tearing like pieces from cardboard boxes just to have something to serve the people… flash forward 2026 and we’re here.”
And Uychiat’s version of Salvajē’s beginnings starts in 2021—when the couple got to New Jersey.
Uychiat continued as a nurse and every time she had off days, the couple did popups around South Jersey: Shrewsbury, Union, Metuchen and any Filipino bakeries and cafes that they could find, like Ayala’s Coffee in Union. Then, in 2023, Panaderya Salvajē hit UbeFest in New York, where he met the owner of LACKAWANNA (Grove Street), and eventually partnered up with them and The Warehouse Cafe—both in Downtown Jersey City—to supply their pastries there in between popups.
“We didn’t know this part of Jersey City. We only know about West Side because that’s where the Filipino restaurants are,” Uychiat laughed. “And then we saw this part [Downtown], and it was really nice. It was amazing to see how different it is from the West Side. But then we love this area [too].”
But the every-now-and-then popups and pastry supplies weren’t sustainable for the couple. Dalman said he convinced Uychiat to move back to Houston and find a storefront, but then the owner of LACKAWANNA told them to check something that had just freed up: a “tiny,” 480 square-foot space at 9 Erie Street.
“As soon as Mikee and I saw it, we were like, ‘This is it…,’” Dalman smiled. “ I think we made the right choice.”
And though it took almost a year to open—because of city permits and licensing—and the couple had no budget for marketing, they still grabbed their walis tingting—a Filipino broom—and snapped photos of their piaya and dinakdakan pot pie, which helped inform the community of their big day: Aug. 17, 2025—their grand opening.
They sold 956 pastries that day.
Croissants, Coffee And Chismis (‘Gossip’)
Aside from the location, what really sold Dalman was the big tree in front.
No matter which direction you come from—Bay Street, Eerie Street or 1st Street—and no matter what season it is, the lengthy branches and its leaves, that creates refuge for shade, will be the first to greet you; even before you see the “Salvajē” in all caps on the storefront window.
“I didn’t want any seats inside, I was like, ‘Oh, people could tambay, like chill outside and with a shade. It’s very Filipino… It is very laid back, that’s kind of like a culture that Filipinos have back home. And that’s what I wanted to recreate, hence the tree,” he smiled and motioned outside.
That was the case during the grand opening and the many weeks after, which continued to draw long lines, leading to consecutive sold-out days. People would stand in line—for hours sometimes—but occupied themselves by talking with accompanying family, friends or even the person waiting right next to them. When the seats inside and the benches outside were taken, sometimes people just posted up on the sidewalk.
“We actually uploaded the video [from the grand opening] and you could see I turned back because I started crying,” Dalman laughed. “I was like, ‘What is this?!’ There were just so many people. But we were very happy.”
Uychiat also laughed and added, “We saw friends, we saw regulars, but we didn’t know how they found out about us. But it was fun. It was actually like a fiesta outside.”
But when the hype slowly died down and the cold weather crept in and took over, Dalman emphasized it’s the loyal customers that has kept them going.
– Nicu Dalman
“On the slow days, it’s the community that holds us down.”
The bakery is open all-season long from Thursdays to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., or until sell-out. They regularly rotate menu items and always feature selections on both the sweet and savory side. At the time of publication, the bakery has in rotation:
- Pork belly sando (sandwich)
- Mango graham
- Strawberry monkey bread
- Ube latte croissant
- Rendang croissant
You can also find a special rotation at Next Door Provisions, located at 146 Yale Avenue, as part of their Manilla Mornings collaboration with Manilla Manilla every Thursday and Friday:
- Ube croissant with strawberry ganache
- Chicken sisig pastry with egg, herb salad and honey calamansi vinaigrette
And if you’re trying to find some customer favorites, you can look out for their:
- Ube latte croissant
- Bicol express handpie
- Chorizo and egg sando (sandwich)
- Longanisa sausage roll
- Rendang croissant
“I haven’t been back home in a very long time. So I try to recreate memories through flavors and Mikee has been my biggest anchor because if [she] doesn’t give her approval, then nothing comes out here,” Dalman said of his wife, who greets visitors at the front-of-house.
“It has to trigger something like, ‘Oh, okay, yeah, this is what it tasted like back in the Philippines. This is how my mom used to do it.’ Stuff like that,” Uychiat added.
Up next, Dalman will be whipping up experimental items with different regional flavors from the Philippines, and Uychiat will be next to him to help find the next item to showcase their diverse homeland.
“There are days where it feels heavy on our shoulders because we want to represent the Philippines, and we wanna do it the right way. So I hope you guys find comfort in knowing we are trying our best,” Dalman said.
