Owners of SLO County boba shop to open new Filipino cafe. What’s on the menu?
San Luis Obispo County foodies are getting a new Filipino dining and cafe experience in downtown Grover Beach.
Owners Eric and Diane Cabrera, who also own Pacific Coast Hawaiian Shave Ice and Boba in Pismo Beach, said after two years of operating their boba shop, they’re ready for a bigger challenge.
The Cabreras got the keys to their new space in the former Fuego location at 1187 W Grand Ave. in Grover Beach on Monday, and if all goes to plan, Lumpia Bros. Cafe should be serving up breakfast by the end of the month, Eric Cabrera told The Tribune.
Despite the quick turnover time — during which the Cabreras will fully lock down their menu items and redesign the former Fuego space — Cabrera said he can’t wait to bring a new way to experience Filipino cuisine to the South County community.
“I think you should know what the community wants or needs, right?” he said. “There’s a lot of pizza places and all these other different type of things, but we figured that, man, this is the perfect time for a Filipino restaurant right now, so we get to bring a little bit of our own culture — which we’re proud of — and we love sharing our culture and my mom’s recipes.”
Homemade Filipino recipes with modern convenience
Cabrera said Lumpia Bros. Cafe will operate under a business model that’s new to the family, offering meals and quick bites from breakfast through dinner.
The “Bros.” in “Lumpia Bros. Cafe” isn’t just for show; in addition to Eric and Diane Cabrera, his brother and cousin will also be partners in the business, he said.
Working with family is nothing new for them, Diane Cabrera said, since their son works at their boba shop too.
“It has been a journey,” Diane Cabrera said. “There were some hard days and easier days —the hard days because we are in business mode for all day, and then you go home and you’re supposed to become family mode, so that’s not easy.”
The family’s goal is to serve small Filipino dishes that Cabrera and his brothers grew up on both in the shop or to-go, mixing in more traditional breakfast fare with Filipino inspiration, he said.
“What’s cool with cafes is you can keep yourself from getting too big,” Cabrera said. “If you want to, you can get crazy big or keep it small.”
Though they’re still planning out the the menu and settling on prices, Lumpia Bros. Cafe will serve lumpia, musubi, adobo, pancit and ramen, putting their own spin on the dishes and experimenting with classic recipes, Cabrera said.
Musubi — best known for the Spam version that bundles a fried piece of canned meat with rice, furikake seasoning and a nori seaweed wrap — will be served with different combinations of meats and breakfast fare, Cabrera said.
“We’re gonna have longaniza musubi, which is Filipino sausage, and linguisa musubi, which is a Portuguese sausage,” Cabrera said. “We’ll have egg in it and all the good stuff you find in Hawaii, and then the different type of meats in lumpia as well.”
In the mornings, the cafe will serve coffee and quick Filipino bites to go, Diane Cabrera said — a model the couple is already familiar with thanks to their boba shop background.
Grover Beach restaurant to open soon
There’s still plenty to do to get the space ready in the coming weeks, including finalizing the menu and painting the space to give it a tropical island theme, Diane Cabrera said.
She said the couple’s shared passion for food and business have carried them through one business and will be key to their new venture.
“When I married (Eric), that’s when I started eating Filipino food, and it really is delicious,” she said. “I mean, you just kind of can’t stop.”
This story was originally published October 7, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
