Purple Panda Filipino Food plans brick-and-mortar restaurant

The owners behind a Filipino food truck that debuted last spring in Taney County are set to expand with a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Ozark.

The opening date of Purple Panda Filipino Food at 502 N. Third St. is dependent on final city and health inspections, said Fatima Sylvester, who co-owns the venture with her husband, Paul. An April 29 or May 6 launch is planned, she said.

Purple Panda, which began as a mobile eatery in Hollister last March before moving the following month to a food truck park at 2166 State Highway 248 in Branson, is filling an 1,100-square-foot building in Ozark. The facility previously housed Big Al’s Crab Shack, which moved to Nixa in October 2022, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

“Hopefully, it works out for us. That small place is a good start for us,” Sylvester said of the couple’s first brick-and-mortar shop.

Sylvester said startup costs will be around $4,000, noting little renovations have been necessary for the building. The owners signed a two-year lease for an undisclosed rate with landlord Kyle Estes.

The new restaurant isn’t a full-fledged move for Purple Panda as Sylvester said she and her husband want to keep operating the food truck.

“So far, the plan is if we can afford both locations, we will still be maybe [open] a day or two per week in Branson,” she said, adding Ozark seemed to be a perfect in-between location for the customers they draw from the Springfield area. “We don’t know yet until we try it. We have to be wise financially.”

Purple Panda sells Filipino cuisine such as chicken adobo, pork lumpia, butter garlic shrimp and tapsilog, which is sliced beef marinated in soy sauce, lemon, garlic and black pepper. Sylvester, who is a native of the Philippines, said she met her husband 15 years ago while they worked in a kitchen at the Hilton hotel in Branson Landing, according to past reporting.