February’s Foodie: Patty Timmons

Entrepreneurialism runs in Patty Timmons’s bloodline. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II, her grandmother worked as a domestic for an American military family and started a side venture reselling the cigarettes and Coca-Colas she could buy at the Army commissary. Timmons, who grew up in San Francisco, always dreamed of opening her own business, but it wasn’t until she moved to Indiana that she felt she could afford that dream. “During the coffee explosion of the early ’90s, I wanted to bring something like Starbucks to Fishers, where I was living,” Timmons says. So she opened Captain Java Coffee Company. “It was a good learning experience,” she says.

Timmons closed the coffee shop to raise a family and eventually opened a string of Wyliepalooza Ice Cream Emporiums with her daughter. When she saw that a popular bar was available in Clermont, where she and her husband now live, she took the opportunity for her first foray into the full-service restaurant business with Lola’s Bowl & Bistro, serving some of the dishes her family made back home.

After hiring a chef, Timmons quickly realized she should do the cooking herself—and put Filipino dishes front and center. A late-fall rollout of a mostly Asian menu included staples such as pork adobo, oxtail stew, and an eggplant omelet. “It took some figuring out,” Timmons says, “but like any good business owner, I’m sticking with it. I’m committed.”

FAVORITE THINGS

(1) Napa Valley wines: “Like Peju Cabernet Sauvignon.”
(2) Indian food: “Especially a good curry.”
(3) Paella: “I love Spanish and Portuguese food for the sour notes, and I see some similarities to this iconic dish and Filipino cuisine.”
(4) Food processors: “When I make lumpia, the traditional Filipino egg roll, this makes quick work of chopping all the vegetables.”
(5) Pork adobo: Timmons’s recipe for this classic Filipino dish.