Northwest Lumpia has a schedule that might seem surprising for a food business: its Tacoma drive-through window is open only from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For Charles and Rebecca Marbas, that focused schedule has worked for a specialty shop built around one Filipino favorite.
The couple started Northwest Lumpia in 2011. Rather than offer a broad restaurant menu, they’ve centered the business on lumpia, with a lineup that now spans 82 flavors. Some bring familiar Filipino dishes into the wrapper; others take inspiration from foods and flavors beyond the traditional filling.
That range is part of what gives the shop its distinctive identity. The News Tribune’s profile describes flavors such as beef adobo, chicken adobo and siopao-inspired lumpia, alongside rotating options. The shop’s own site says its inventory changes weekly, so customers may find that a flavor has sold out before the next batch is made.
For the past six years, the Marbases have served customers through a drive-through window rather than letting them inside. Customers can order lumpia cooked to order or buy frozen packs to prepare later, and the shop encourages online preorders for the best selection. It’s a compact operation with a narrow service window—and a menu that keeps changing.
In a recent News Tribune profile, reporter Kristine Sherred spent time with the couple and explored how they built a business around a single specialty. The full piece gets into the thinking behind the flavors, the work of making lumpia in batches, and why the Marbases have stayed with this unusual model.
Read Sherred’s article, here.
Discover more of Tacoma in today’s Tacoma Local Minute. Catch the rest of today’s local news, events, and updates in the full issue here.
Not a Subscriber Yet?
Sign up for a free subscription to Tacoma Local Minute and get the latest issue in your mailbox every morning.