Have you ever tried a lumpia (LOOM-pee-uh)? Alexa Reyes, co-founder of Lumpia City along with her wife, Sam Klimaszewski, are betting you haven’t. 

“Lumpia is a popular Filipino fried spring roll,” she explains. “It’s a big street food over there. You can find vendors on the street all over the Philippines frying them up.” 

Reyes started Lumpia City with her now-wife back in 2015 in Reyes’ native San Diego.

“California has so much Asian and Filipino food,” she says. “So at first we wanted to be different and do unique fusion flavors.” They started as a pop-up from Reyes’ parents’ garage with three flavors: Beefy mac and cheese, sriracha pork, and savory beef and potato. “We popped up in a couple farmers’ markets to start; we wanted to test it out and see how people would receive us.”

It’s safe to say people received them well, because soon Reyes and Klimaszewski quit their day jobs to focus on Lumpia City full time. 

“We wanted to give everything to the business,” Reyes says. “We kept getting booked for more events in San Diego, and we did that for about a year.” Their event bookings kept snowballing, but San Diego’s high cost-of-living started to catch up with them. “It’s so expensive there, and the city started to change the rules and weren’t going to allow pop-ups at places like breweries that were big money-makers for us. You had to have a food truck.” That’s when moving to Wisconsin came up.

From the West Coast to the Fresh Coast

Klimaszewski is originally from Milwaukee. “Sam said, ‘I know if we brought this to Wisconsin it would be a big hit,’” Reyes says. So they decided to make the move in 2016. 

With lower costs, they were able to quickly buy a food truck and start selling in Milwaukee. “I very quickly realized there wasn’t a big Filipino presence here,” Reyes says. That was part of the reason their strategy at first was to keep focusing on fun, unique fusion flavors rather than authentic lumpia. But she quickly realized that the gap of Filipino food here presented a business opportunity. 

“I avoided doing a traditional Filipino lumpia for years because I was afraid that people who do know Filipino food would be very particular and say ‘this isn’t real lumpia.’” But after relocating to Milwaukee, they decided to try and replicate Reyes’ grandmother’s lumpia recipe. 

“It’s a traditional lumpia we call the Shanghai recipe based on my grandma’s recipe.” Reyes says. “My grandma didn’t write any recipes down. She knew everything by heart.” She says that’s the fun part about cooking — adding this or that to try and recreate a recipe that evokes the taste of her grandma’s food. “But I also wish she had written down her recipes because she made amazing food,” she says with a chuckle. “My favorite part is when a Filipino person will try our lumpia and say, ‘This tastes like home.’ That’s the best,” she says. Reyes’ grandmother came from the Philippines in 1967, bringing Reyes’ mother and aunts and uncles along with her. 

Finding Success in the Midwest

Lumpia City isn’t just isolated to the Milwaukee area. You can find their products in the frozen aisle of grocery stores across Wisconsin (see a full list here). You can also get lumpia served hot at six locations across the state, from Milwaukee to Waupaca to Kenosha. 

We have our kitchen in Waterford where we make everything,” Reyes says. “Every lumpia is hand rolled,” she notes proudly. “You can also buy frozen from our retail shop in Waterford where we have freezer packs with up to 10 or 12 different flavors.” 

Reyes has noticed that despite Filipino food having little recognition in Wisconsin, lumpia has been a connecting force. “We’ll often hear people say, ‘Oh my gosh I used to work with a Filipino lady, and she would always bring lumpia to our potlucks, and it was my favorite thing.’” Reyes notes how lumpia tends to bring people together. “It’s a versatile food you can eat with anything. You can eat our chicken enchilada lumpia with salsa and a salad, or our mac and cheese flavor with a bowl of tomato soup. We love hearing how people get creative with how they eat our lumpia.” 

Speaking of creativity, Lumpia City has won a few awards for their unique creations. Last year, the company won the coveted Sporkies prize at the Wisconsin State Fair with its ube butter banana French toast lumpia. It featured a brown sugar-coated banana, a strip of French toast and a pool of deep-purple ube butter — all wrapped like a spring roll and deep-fried. “It was basically a caramelized banana rolled up,” Reyes says. “And it was delicious.”

LGBTQ+ Life in Wisconsin vs. California

Despite her business succeeding, getting used to life in Wisconsin after growing up in California was a bit of a challenge. “But even in California I had family that disagreed with me coming out,” she says. “I grew up Christian, so I had family members that didn’t accept me at first.” 

Reyes says most of her family has changed their views, but she still worries about what they think. “I’m grateful for my family who’ve grown and accepted me, but there are some that, even if they act like they’re okay with me, I know deep down they don’t accept gay people.” 

“That’s a challenge,” she says, “But I’ve learned to create my own community.” Reyes has noticed, even in her last 10 years in Milwaukee, that things have grown and progressed. “There’s more of a general air of acceptance in the last couple years that I didn’t feel as strongly as when I moved here a decade ago.” 

In San Diego, Reyes says she took for granted the bigger city vibe and the more prominent gay community. “But we love it here,” she says. They’ve even sold at Pridefest and plan to do so again this year.

The Joys (and Challenges) of Owning a Small Business with Your Spouse

Reyes feels lucky to be in business with her wife. “It’s nice working with her because we both know what each other goes through,” she says. “It’s not always perfect, of course, and we have our moments, but we’ve learned how to work on things together to get the best outcome for our relationship and business.” 

Reyes and Klimaszewski have been together for 11 years, but married in 2024. For others considering starting a business with their significant other, Reyes has some advice: “There’s a lot of support you can find if you just look for it. Stay open-minded and open to collaboration. It’s so important to stay connected!” 

As a 34-year-old, Reyes has spent a third of her life on Lumpia City. And she’s not slowing down. Reyes says to look for them this spring and summer at Milwaukee’s Zoo A La Carte and the Wisconsin State Fair—and at the Minnesota State Fair for the first time. “Starting this business was scary, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she says.