A Dining Room of Her Own

by

Dining

The story below is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

At Pinoy Store and Kitchen, Franchesca Maglalang showcases her native Filipino cuisine in a Vinton diner.

Editor's Note: Since the publication of this feature, Maglalang has transitioned from her brick-and-mortar restaurant to a food truck, bringing her flavorful Filipino dishes to a wider audience. Be sure to follow Pinoy Kitchen on Facebook for the latest updates on where to find the truck and upcoming events.

When curious folks stop off Route 24 to check out Pinoy Store and Kitchen — perhaps they saw a social media post about the Filipino restaurant or are refueling at the Exxon station next door — owner Franchesca Maglalang often sends out a piece of lumpia if she sees them deliberating whether to stay for a meal. She describes lumpia to diners as being like a Chinese egg roll, but with a meatier filling. Indeed, ground pork is the star, seasoned with finely chopped celery, onions garlic and eggs, all tightly rolled with wrappers into cigarillo-esque parcels.

One bite of the crispy, piping hot roll is all it takes to convince diners to sit down, place a full order and continue snacking, dunking the lumpia into the accompanying sweet Thai chili sauce while they peruse the rest of the menu. Lumpia have become Maglalang’s calling card, but it was a long road to opening a restaurant where she could cook and serve a full menu of her native Filipino cuisine. And she never dreamed she’d be serving sisig and pancit in a converted American diner in Vinton. 

Maglalang, who grew up in the Filipino province of Batangas, was often at her mom’s side in the kitchen. “My mom, you know, she’s a big, big cook,” Maglalang says. “She cooked for the church, cooked for the school, me growing up—she taught me everything she knows.” This early exposure to the kitchen and the satisfaction derived from sharing food and feeding others inspired Maglalang to pursue a degree in hospitality management at De La Salle Lipa University, which culminated with a six-month internship at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.

Maglalang ended up staying at The Greenbrier for ten years, working as a server at 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 waiting 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 Store and Kitchen has expanded to catering, delivering party trays of lumpia, as well as pancit, fried chicken, Filipino curry and tinola to clients like Carilion, LewisGale and even a rehearsal dinner in Lexington. Individuals can also pre-order lumpia (pork, beef or chicken) to stash in their freezer for when the craving strikes ($25 for 40 pieces).

Lumpia remain a perennial fan-favorite, but come summer, the best-seller is halo-halo, a popular Filipino dessert named for the Tagalog word for mixed. It features finely shaved ice drizzled with evaporated milk and a medley of toppings. “In hot summer days you’ll see vendors outside making it along the streets,” Maglalang says, noting that at Pinoy Store and Kitchen, halo-halo is layered with ube, a Filipino purple yam that’s boiled with condensed milk for halo-halo, jackfruit, coconut gel, sweetened red mung beans, jellies, pinipig (toasted rice) and a homemade custard flan topping. Maglalang’s deftness with sweet preparations extends to her popular cakes, including whole layer cakes that can be pre-ordered for holidays in flavors such as mocha and ube. Ube, a flavor that has been trending in the U.S. for its vibrant purple hue and earthy-sweet, vanilla flavor, is also spun into milkshakes and bubble tea at Pinoy Store and Kitchen. 

Next, Maglalang is excited to have her mom, Priscila, join her in the kitchen. “She’s got a menu already,” Maglalang says, laughing. “She’s made to be in the kitchen. She got excited when I told her I’m opening a diner. She wants to be here helping me.” Maglalang says that some of those additions are likely to include Filipino empanadas, crispy, savory turnovers stuffed with pork and salted egg, and buchi, a dessert of deep-fried sesame balls stuffed with sweetened mung beans. Maglalang also plans to continue her cooking classes for kids, like learning to make dumplings and roll lumpia.

“My passion is to share the love for food and share Filipino cuisine,” Maglalang says. “I want to make people happy: dining, eating, the experience. Every time people come here and eat, I have to touch the table. I have to make sure they’re happy, that they love their food.”

The story above is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!