BBQ pork sticks, sweet & salty beef: Filipino eatery opens, plans 2nd Kansas City spot

Theresa “Ting” Santos-Spencer dreamed of opening a tiny bistro that would pay homage to her family — their recipes and the dishes she grew up eating in the Philippines and in New York.

A decade ago, she was working on a midtown restaurant space. But then she unexpectedly had to spend three months in the Philippines to nurse her mother back to health.

When she returned to Kansas City, she also returned to her corporate job.

“I was really good at it, but it was not my passion,” she said. “I kept putting my dream off for years. But I wasn’t as focused as I am now. Timing is everything.”

Last week she opened Ting’s Filipino Bistro in Parlor food hall, 1707 Locust St. She plans to open a restaurant in midtown in the spring.

The menu includes appetizers such as lechon kawali (pork belly fried twice and served with sweet sauce or chili vinegar sauce).

Entrees include chicken adobo, barbecue pork sticks, and pancit (shredded chicken with vermicelli noodles and vegetables topped with crispy pork rinds and lemon wedges).

Her Sunday brunch features just two items: tapsilog (sweet and salty beef) and longsilog (sweet and spicy sausage and egg), both served with garlic rice and sliced tomatoes.

Santos-Spencer grew up in the Philippines and moved to New York when she was 10. Her late father went to Harvard University to become a heart surgeon, and her late mother to Radcliffe to become an obstetrician and gynecologist. She had family in the Kansas city area and moved here, thinking it would be a good place to raise a family.

Her grandmother, who owned a small eatery in the Philippines, was also an inspiration.

“Everything I know how to make is from her and my mom,” she said.

She hopes to have multiple locations and plans a spring opening for a Ting’s at 1803 W. 39th St., in the former Blue Koi Noodles & Dumplings space.

This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 10:05 AM.