When Daisy Weitkamp opened her new restaurant, Daisy’s Kitchenette, on July 10 in New Florence, she was thrilled with the opportunity to give Montgomery Countians a taste of Filipino home cooking.
“I asked my husband (Lloyd) how to have a business here,” Weitkamp said. “He supported me, he helped me and we got this food truck.”
Weitkamp moved to Montgomery County from the Philippines two years ago. She worked at the Brady Hotel in New Florence before deciding to open her restaurant.
The business, which is operated on a trailer, opened near McDonalds in New Florence. Five days later, it moved to its new location – the parking lot of Cuno Trailer Sales in Montgomery City.
“Cuno Trailer Sales said they are happy with us being here,” Lloyd Weitkamp said. “We can keep the trailer here.”
Daisy Weitkamp found the trailer at Facebook Marketplace.
“Before we rented it, it was kind of blue and had coffee mugs on it,” Lloyd Weitkamp said. “I wanted to have a color that would match our truck. We painted it red so it could look like a red shed.”
At Daisy’s Kitchenette, the menu has a wide variety of Filipino food, which includes pancit, arozcaldo, palabok, bilo-bilo, barbecue and liempo with java rice, egg rolls, pandesal, puto and tokneneng. Daisy Weitkamp said the pork steak has been the most popular item since she opened her restaurant nearly two weeks ago.
Pancit is a dish with noodles, meat and vegetables in a rich sauce. Palabok is a dish with noodles and shrimp. Pandesal is a type of bread that is popular in the Philippines and can be served with coffee. Arozcaldo is a chicken and rice porridge.
Bilo-bilo is a dessert of rice balls with coconut milk and sugar. Mango flan, Leche flan and puto are the other desserts that are sold at the restaurant.
Weitkamp is no stranger to running a business. She owned a restaurant called Chicken Star while living in the Philippines.
“I love to run a business,” Weitkamp said. “At the same time, I love talking to people every day.”
Lloyd Weitkamp said he and his wife have already set future goals for the restaurant, which opens at 11 a.m. on weekdays.
“If this works and takes off, we’ll try to buy our own trailer,” he said. “It would be really nice if we could find a lot or something like where we can own it like Mimi’s (Lemonade Stand). We also want to venture out more and go to other counties and go to bigger events. We want to keep trying to expand the brand.”
For more information, contact Daisy Weitkamp at 573-284-5625.