The Roanoker March/April 2025 - 94

Dining
all seven of the resort's restaurants. Toward the
end of her tenure, she started a Filipino grocery
store in White Sulphur Springs where she
cooked lumpia alongside mom-inspired daily
specials such as pancit, rice noodles stir-fried
with shredded chicken and chicken adobo,
a soy sauce-, vinegar- and garlic-based stew
simmered with crushed bay leaves. Maglalang's
cooking elicited multiple appeals of " You
should open a diner or restaurant! " These are
the magic words any aspiring restaurateur
dreams of hearing, but opening a restaurant is
rarely as simple as acting on it.
Maglalang and her family relocated to
Roanoke in June 2023, and along with her
fiancé, Joseph Dooley, decided to start their
restaurant journey with a food truck. They
invested their hard-earned savings into a customized
food truck, ordering it from a manufacturer
in China in July 2023. By the time
the truck was built and arrived in Norfolk for
inspection eight months later, they learned that
it didn't pass The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration's labeling requirements.
U.S. customs denied the truck's entry and gave
the couple a choice: destroy the food truck or
return it to the manufacturer. For most, this
would be a sign that it wasn't meant to be.
But Maglalang is no stranger to hardship and
sacrifice.
When Maglalang was an infant, her father
moved to Japan to find cash-in-hand work-
construction, painting, nannying-ultimately
overstaying his tourist visa to provide for his
family and send Maglalang to private school.
" He worked in Japan for 12 years straight without
seeing us. I met him the first
time when I was turning 13, "
Maglalang recalls. " Every Sunday
at 1 o'clock he calls us, asks how
we're doing. Every time I had to
hand my phone back to my mom, this is his
phrase, 'Do you still love Dad?' " On the fateful
day she first met him-she was sitting at
her mom's dining room table eating tinola, a
Filipino chicken soup fragrant with ginger-
those were the words she heard her father
utter. It's a moment that still makes Maglalang
tear up, even more so as she recently secured
visas for her father, Clemente Maglalang, and
mother, Priscila Maglalang, to join her in the
U.S.
While Maglalang and Dooley were waitBELOW,
LEFT TO RIGHT:
Filipino pantry staples
like vinegars, sauces and
seasonings line the shelves.
Pork sinigang brims with
okra, eggplant and tomatoes
in a tamarind-based broth.
ing for the food truck to be built, they tended
to Pinoy Store, the Filipino grocery store they
opened in June 2023 in the former Wonder
Drug space on Stewartsville
Road. They stocked the shelves
with imported Filipino products
such as noodles, spices and
sauces and occasionally did food
pop-ups, cooking on an outdoor grill outside
the shop. When their landlord discovered what
had happened to their food truck, he shared
that he had recently purchased the Route 24
Diner, just a few doors down, and offered to
lease the space to her. Maglalang longed to
cook and serve food in a dining room of her
own, but since she couldn't afford to rent both
spaces, she moved the grocery business and set
up Pinoy Store and Kitchen in the Route 24
Diner space in May 2024.
Much of the Americana diner vibe remains,
reflected in the booth-style seating, kitschy
roadside décor and a smattering of classic
American diner fare, like burgers made with
local beef. But as word catches on, folks are
more likely to stop in for a plate of sisig,
chopped, grilled pork belly dressed up with
Thai chilies, red onions, a twist of lemon and
soy sauce served on a sizzling platter. " We got
a lot of support from both
locals and the Filipino
community, " Maglalang
says, shouting out the
Philippine American
Association in Roanoke
Valley in particular. " A lot
of locals learned to love the
food; I started to have regulars.
They love my lumpia. I
have to roll them every day
because we can't keep up. "
The lumpia's reputation
has expanded beyond the
diner's doors, too. Pinoy
94 march/april 2025
TheRoanoker.com
Filipino food and
decor sit alongside
Americana
memorabilia and
diner classics.
LAYLA KHOURY-HANOLD
http://www.TheRoanoker.com
The Roanoker March/April 2025

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