To be honest, it was love at first fry. But as the name suggests, Shameless Buns also serves some great eats, sandwich-style. You may have seen one of their two Jeepney food trucks around Vancouver. The jeepney is a common public transportation vehicle in the Philippines, a leftover from World War II. Shameless Buns has transformed the iconic vehicles into food trucks. You can routinely catch one at various Vancouver Farmers Markets.
A Food Dream Becomes Reality
Shameless Buns was born of owner Matt Brennan’s creative urge to start a business fuelled by his love of food, inspired by his partner Corvette Romero’s own Filipino background and bolstered by her real-world restaurant experience.
“I’d been into food but not professional,” Brennan explains, “I loved to eat.” He had a good deal of enthusiasm but only a vague idea: “I was goofball wanting to start a business, something with food.”
Romero helped him to bring his idea to life. At the time, six years ago when they first opened, there was nothing like Shameless Buns, at least not in Vancouver.
Shameless Buns Has Fun with Food
The couple are inspired by classic Filipino dishes although Shameless Buns puts their own creative spin on those classics. They appeal to Filipino nostalgia for those familiar, while remaining approachable to those who aren’t. The food is Filipino in flavour served in a fresh way, on tasty buns. Shameless is playful, as you can see by their tongue-in-cheek name. This playfulness is also reflected in individual dishes.
The Main Squeeze items are all sandwiches served on Filipino brioche buns called pandesals. Tapa Dat Bun is like a Filipino Cheese Steak with beef tapa, caramelized onions, and gooey cheese sauce. One of my favourites is the Not Your ‘Lola’s Chicken Adobo with slowly braised chicken that has the perfect tang, topped with Atchara (a pickled papaya slaw) and Garlic Calamansi Aioli. At Shameless Buns, they make everything on the menu in-house, including the sauces. The Little Sausage is cheekily referred to as “the best 3 inches in Vancouver,” which is valid as it ranks as one of the best breakfast sandwiches in the city. This handheld version of the most important meal of the day comes with Longaniza (sweet, spicy Filipino pork sausage), banana ketchup, sriracha mayo, and a “sexy egg.” Other sandwich options include spam, meatloaf, and jack fruit.
The side dishes, or “Side Chicks” include the fries I love so dearly: the Signature Sinigang Fries. Also known as vinegar fries, they’re crispy, tangy, and delicious. In fact the menu describes them as “crispy AF.” They have all the sour tang of fries soaked in vinegar with none of the sogginess.“Sinigang is a popular tamarind based Filipino soup that we absolutely adore and we’ve dusted these bad boys with our house sinigang blend,” reveal Brennan and Romero. Fantastic on their own, the fries are also a base for the same fillings as the sandwiches (perhaps reflecting the Canadian influence of poutine).
Pushing and Pivotting
When Shameless Buns first opened in May 2019, Brennan and Romero were inspired by the godfather of food trucks, Roy Choi. They harnessed social media to spread the word, learning as they went. Shameless Buns grew from one truck to two, and then into a brick and mortar restaurant space at Fraser and 41st in 2021. Romero and Brennan were optimistic that, given their significant following, they could sustain a restaurant. However, after an initial rush, business slowed. “We did everything we could,” says Brennan, “Vancouver’s a really tough market.”
After three years of trying, they pivoted. Rather than abandon the restaurant, they figured they might as well keep the space. Getting a spot in a commissary kitchen costs about the same as rent anyway. Brennan and Romero “went back to the drawing board,” and decided to hold a few pop-ups to test a new concept: Jack’s Chowder.
Brennan shares, “The pop-ups gave us that confidence to try something new.” They’d had the chowder idea for a few years. After two successful pop-ups in September, they decided to move forward with rebranding the restaurant. Now you can stop into Jack’s for a hot bowl of New England Clam Chowder. Or, a beer battered fish sandwich. If you’re craving classic Fish and Chips, you’ll get to try the Shameless signature fries. Except at Jack’s, they call them “Salt & Vinegar Fries.”
For fans of fresh and fun Filipino food, Shameless Buns still lives on in the two jeepneys that roam the city (and are also available for catering). Or, you can find them on the delivery apps.
