The Lumpia House, a restaurant serving traditional Filipino food, has opened following a successful trial run of its food truck with a similar name.
Rolando Cabral and his wife, Myrna Balabag, launched The Lumpia Truck in September while in the process of identifying a brick-and-mortar location. Meanwhile, Travelers Kitchen, 1731 S. MacArthur Blvd., closed Oct. 15 when owner Ansumana Darboe announced he planned to transition operations to a food truck. The location previously housed La Bamba for many years until the Mexican restaurant closed in 2023.
The Lumpia House is now subleasing the space from Travelers Kitchen to fulfill its remaining lease, and the food truck has been operating regularly out of the parking lot. The restaurant held a soft opening Feb. 3.
“We’re slowly introducing a few menu items every day until we’re prepared to serve everything,” Cabral said. “We’ve added a lot already to the menu more than the 15 items we originally offered from the food truck.”
Cabral said new menu items include crispy pork leg, Filipino-style whole fried chickens with no breading, chicken tinola and traditional dishes such as kare kare, ox tail simmered in a peanut-based sauce.
The couple previously operated a restaurant in their native Philippines and then lived in New York before moving to Springfield to work in the health care industry. Cabral is the chief information officer for Springfield Clinic and Balabag worked as a nurse for many years before leaving to run the day-to-day operations of the new business.
Cabral said for now, they are making due with help from family members.
“I don’t want to start hiring without having an accurate idea of what we really need, but this coming week we may need to hire additional staff,” he said.
The Lumpia House is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Saturday. Friday has extended hours from 8 a.m.-11 p.m. due to karaoke. The business is closed Sunday.
Cabral said a grand opening is planned for early March.
