MANILA, Philippines — It was December 27, 2008. John Concepcion, former Chief Executive Officer of ice cream giant Selecta, was in Osaka, Japan, sitting in a small restaurant just outside the train station with son Michael and daughter Nicole.
“We watched as customers lined up for just one thing. Remember, this is 2008. We saw it – a perfect plate of Katsu, no fancy menus, no distraction, just a singular focus of mastering one exceptional dish,” he recalled.
“So we step aside, took our first bite and it was orgasmic, right? It was really, really good! It was my first experience of what Katsu was supposed to be.”
Right then and there, John started to remember to think, ‘Why don’t we have this in the Philippines? A concept of going to Japan, going to the place, just producing one dish…"
According to him, the whole concept of a Japanese restaurant in the Philippines back in 2008 was “serving everything.”
“So it was quite refreshing to go to a place that just serves one dish and, and I had to go back to the hotel, go to my wife, and she heard me said that one day, I'm going to have a Katsu restaurant in the Philippines, and that's the start of the whole experience…”
That one Katsu plate in Japan later on became the seed for John to start a new passion.
He founded Standard Hospitality Group (SHG) and opened his first restaurant venture under SHG, Yabu, in November 11, 2011, or 11-11-11.
“And then God gave us a success, immediate success,” he recalled at his speech at the reopening of Yabu’s Rockwell Makati branch last month.
“We opened it in Megamall, and then the lines just kept on flowing there. And from there, we expanded the business to Ippudo… a global ramen chain. And then we got into Kiwami… it's our elevated food hall.”
For 14 years now, Yabu has become so successful that the Japanese media even flew in to the Philippines to interview Concepcion about the brand, he recalled in an exclusive interview with Philstar.com.
“It's 2011 when we started this. The Japanese youths came to the Philippines and they interviewed me and we were in the news that Filipinos, a Filipino is doing Japanese and doing it very well, so yeah, we're confident to grow the business because we've been doing it for so many years now we're confident about it,” he said.
Even the name Yabu, he explained, was just his own invention.
“No rhyme or reason, I wanted something short, memorable,” he said of the restaurant chain’s name.
He, however, hired a Japanese technical consultant in building the brand and the menu.
“He (the Japanese consultant) signed the logo… and he was just playing around with it, but he made the logo and, yeah, I just thought of the name,” Concepcion shared.
“I was asking my family, ‘What do you guys think about the name?’ And I wanted something memorable, easy to say, Yabu, something unique. And then I asked the Japanese guy there, they sign me a logo.”
Because of the name and the menu, many people thought Yabu is Japanese-owned, but it is actually proudly Filipino, Concepcion said.
“Some people think that it is a franchise because it's done well, right?” he pointed out.
“It helps to be the first in the market, and we're very focused on only Japanese. We go to the whole company. We focus on a single dish for 14 years in Yabu. We have a Japanese partner who comes in here five to six times a year to train. Everybody has to be certified three times in a year.”
Although Concepcion does not have plans yet to open a Yabu branch in Japan, he is considering opening one elsewhere in Asia.
“On average, I think, Yabu will grow six stores a year. It's growing quite fast,” he said.
"Sharing with you some of our goals, big audacious goals here, for 45 stores today. I'm pushing to really emphasize the quality, but we'd like to see the business go to one of its stores in the next five years. We'd like to provide the consumers with really next-level cuisine. And I'm just so blessed to live in this beautiful time of our world here that the economy is doing well," Michael Concepcion, SHG Creative Director, said in his speech at Yabu's recent Rockwell Makati reopening.
Since John has retired from running Selecta for 35 years, he now focuses on growing SHG with more Japanese dining concepts coming soon, including a modern take on sushi, a Japanese franchise and other concepts that he assured would “blow people’s minds.”
“It's going to come out very good, very good. So nice innovations are coming out,” he announced.
“Quality of service, quality of food, and consistency. Just being consistent about it, I guess, is the key.”
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