Filipino food truck rolls into success in the US
In the United States—specifically Jacksonville, North Carolina—there’s a food truck that people are happily lining up for, and it serves lumpia and adobo. Customers, many of them non-Filipinos, willingly wait, travel far, and come back again and again to get a taste of the food truck’s rice meals and immaculate spring rolls.
We know because we’ve watched it happen in Facebook videos posted by Cecilia Arevalo Bridges, the woman behind Rolling Lumpia.
Cecilia, who grew up in Bacoor, Cavite, and spent around a decade living in Japan, moved to the US in 2004, where she now works as a realtor.
Running their own food truck had been a dream for her and her family. It was her eldest child who came up with the idea. Sydney, 35, who studied hospitality and had previously worked in a restaurant, was the one who kept saying, “Mama, let’s start a food truck business.”
For two years, they kept talking about it. And then one day, Cecilia saw a food truck being sold online.
“We had no real plans, we didn’t know what food we’d serve, we didn’t know how to run a food truck, how to get permits, we knew nothing. But we bought the food truck. And that’s how it started.”
The food truck had been previously used to sell Venezuelan food.
But for Cecilia and her family, there was no debate—they would be serving Filipino food. That was, after all, the idea for their business.
“We love traveling and eating and we would see good food and we’d think, why don’t we do this with Filipino food so more non-Filipinos in Jacksonville can discover it?”
Number one on the list? “We knew immediately that lumpia needed to be on the menu.”
‘Everybody loves lumpia’
She added, “Lumpia is very popular. Kapag walang lumpia, hindi kumpleto ang handaan. Lumpia brings everybody together. At parties, they always ask, ‘Do you have lumpia?’”
Cecilia, of course, already knew how to make lumpia. In Cavite, her mother Pining ran a carinderia outside their house. Her grandparents, too, had been in the business of food. “Every Simbang Gabi, nagtitinda sila ng lugaw. I grew up with that.”
Wanting to perfect her lumpia recipe, Cecilia worked on it, along with everything else they needed to launch the business—planning the menu, getting the permits, buying equipment, wrapping the truck.
They launched Rolling Lumpia in 2022, at a trick-or-treat event organized by her realty office. “Ang daming tao, ang haba ng pila,” said Cecilia.
From day one, Rolling Lumpia’s lumpia has been a huge hit. “They’re made with love,” she likes to say.
Plus, they look perfect. Cecilia’s many online followers often praise her for her flawless lumpia. And she happily shares her secret by posting tutorials on how to roll a perfect lumpia.
She said, “Maganda yung pagkakabalot niya, and it still looks good when you fry it. Our lumpia has a lot of veggies but you can still really taste the pork. ‘Yung lasa niya, for me, it’s perfect. Pam-pamilya, and also, pam-benta.”
They serve lumpia three ways—regular, dynamite (spicy lumpia topped with green onions, fresh jalapeño, and “yum-yum” sauce) and loaded (lumpia topped with bacon bits, green onions, fresh jalapeño, cheese sauce, and sour cream)—and all of them are big sellers. She also has customers who buy her lumpia frozen so they can cook it at home.
Also on the original menu are pork adobo and pancit. They wanted to serve simple Filipino food people were already familiar with. “There are a lot of Filipinos here, so even the non-Filipinos here already know about these dishes.”
Pork belly adobo bowl
The bestselling pork belly adobo bowl and the pancit also come with two pieces of lumpia.
“Eventually, we thought, why don’t we make a Rolling Lumpia bento which already includes everything? That sells well, too, because people want to try all our dishes.”
Business has been going so well they’ve upgraded to a bigger food truck. “The first food truck is really small. We’d bump into one another when we’re inside it,” said Cecilia.
A bigger food truck means more breathing room for the team and also more space so they can sell more kinds of food—turon, crispy pork belly, sisig, tapa, maybe even pork barbecue.
One of the food truck’s regular locations is the military base Camp Lejeune. The Marines—Filipino or not—love Rolling Lumpia’s food. “Makikita mo sila, babalik-balik sila halos every day.”
The family posts Rolling Lumpia’s weekly schedule on Facebook. They also do events. There are people begging them to head over to their areas.
“We have a lot of supporters in New Bern, which is about an hour away. They would ask, ‘When are you coming? Please come to New Bern,’” shared Cecilia.
Some Filipinos travel from nearby cities for her food, with some driving from as far as four hours away. Cecilia loves seeing her customers react to the food, including one guy who said, on camera, that it’s better than his wife’s cooking.
‘Nakaka-proud’
The food truck also gets a lot of first-timers, people who’ve never tried lumpia before and are instantly hooked. “This is really the reason we started the food truck. So more people can get to know Filipino food.”
We asked Cecilia: How does it feel to have people lining up for her food? “Sobrang nakakatuwa. Sobrang nakaka-proud. Pati ‘yung mga apo ko, very proud. They would hear their classmates and teachers talking about the food truck and they’d tell me about it.”
The good food is just one reason customers return. Rolling Lumpia’s brand of hospitality—and sweet generosity—keep people coming back for more. How warmly they greet everyone who comes. How they give the first customer of the day a free meal. Or how they offer free fried rice to people who try to order their food after they’ve run out. It’s easy to see why customers fall in love with Rolling Lumpia—there’s heart in what they do.
It’s not just customers—Rolling Lumpia also has a lot of online fans. Cecilia has over 900,000 followers on Facebook who enjoy watching her food truck videos.
“I’ve been sharing our journey online. I think the viewers like that it’s a family business, that they see my kids, my younger daughter Chili, my husband helping me.”
Rolling Lumpia is a family affair—Cecilia, her kids, her husband John all play a role. Even her mom helps. It’s become a way for them to bond, she said.
And their business has expanded. They’ve also opened Rolling Boba, a milk tea shop, also in Jacksonville. “Katas ng food truck ‘yan.”
Cecilia gives back by supporting small businesses in the Philippines. She also supports her sibling’s feeding programs for kids and senior citizens in the country. “Little by little, I share our blessings,” she said.
She and her family still have a lot of dreams for their business, including opening a Rolling Lumpia Café.
What for her is the best thing about running Rolling Lumpia? “Making people happy, syempre.”
