Features
A Lofty Idea
Scarcity of suitable joints where these cousins could hang out late nights led to a new restaurant influenced by a place in Canada where they used to have good times
By Millet M. Enriquez
In 2001, their remembrance of the good times when they used to hang out at a friend's loft in Vancouver, Canada, inspired cousins John Tian Seng and Erik Cua to put up a specialty dessert bar back in the Philippines. They decided to locate it at the newly-developed Eastwood City in Libis, Quezon City, then they named it Jack's Loft Dessert Bar in honor of Jack Johnston, their friend who owned that loft in Vancouver.
When the cousins got back to the Philippines after living and studying in Vancouver for several years, they first started running the local operations of Pho Hoa, a Vietnamese restaurant master franchise that their family had acquired from the US in 1998. Every night, they would close the Pho Hoa store at around 11:00 and would go out looking for a place to hang out. "By that time, though, wala nang masyadong open [very few of the places would still be open]," Tian Seng recalls, "so we decided we might as well open something where we can hang out and at the same time run the place ourselves."
While looking for a concept that would stand out among all the other niche restaurants that were already in Eastwood, the cousins remembered the late-night parties and get-togethers that they used to have at their friend's loft in Vancouver. "We missed those times when we got back here," says Tian Seng. And so, to relive those moments, the cousins invested P5 to P6 million for a lease on a 160-square meter space at Eastwood where they could replicate their favorite hangout in Vancouver.
The place took the form of a New York-style loft restaurant-bar, one furnished with comfortable sofas where customers could relax and chat while taking their meals. It targeted the growing office crowd in the new business-commercial development in Libis, Quezon City, offering a cozy, restful atmosphere for having coffee, pastries, and light meals.
The cousins hired a consultant to help conceptualize the menu, and Tian Seng's wife, an avid baker, also collaborated for its signature offering—Jack's Loft cheesecake. The dessert, which comes in a choice of mango, blueberry, or strawberry toppings, was to become one of the restaurant's specialties, along with "decadent" cakes, apple pies, and carrot cakes that sell for P80 to P120 a slice.
Initially, the bar opened daily at 6:00 p.m., but after six months, the cousins decided to also offer lunch. Jack's Loft then moved its opening to 11:00 a.m. and expanded its menu to include pasta, grilled sandwiches (paninis), and a mix of Asian cuisines.
Tian Seng says the longer hours required the restaurant staff to make major adjustments in their working schedules, but he says it was all worth the sacrifice in the end. It enabled the company to recover its initial investment in only one year.
Two years later, the cousins opened a second Jack's Loft branch at Wilson Street in Greenhills—one that was also designed like a loft but catering to families and weekend crowds instead of office workers. This branch also did very well, thus encouraging the cousins to open a third branch at Robinsons Galleria and a fourth at The Block in SM North EDSA.
Two more Jack's Loft branches are slated to open this year, one at the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City and the other at Robinsons Place Manila. Tiang Seng says that they are going for smaller branches this time—about 53 square meters in store space—to minimize expenses and hasten the payback on their initial investment.
Tian Seng handles the day-to-day operations of the restaurant, and his cousin Erik Cua is in charge of marketing and public relations. He says that because of their experience in running Pho Hoa, managing Jack's Loft has not been difficult, needing only a little fine-tuning in approach because of the differences in their target clientele.
He prefers to be hands-on with the day-to-day operations of the Jack's Loft restaurants, visiting each of them at least three to five times a week. "Even if you can't be at every branch, you have to try your best to call them to find out how they are doing," he says. "Spending about one to two hours in each branch every other day is, I think, more than enough."
To promote customer loyalty, Jack's Loft does in-house promotions such as free cakes or free ice cream when certain purchase levels are reached. It also regularly comes up with new items on its menu.
Tian Seng says that managing expenses and labor is one of the biggest challenges in running a food business, and that having the right team for a branch is very crucial. "You have to see which people work best with whom and try to see who are productive, and then you try to assemble a cohesive team in every branch," he says. Currently, Jack's loft has more than 20 workers in Eastwood, more than 15 in Greenhills, and less than 10 each in Robinsons Galleria and North EDSA.
He says that an entrepreneur needs to be always in touch with what the customers want. "You have to make sure that everything is okay with the food and the servers," he explains. "When you hand out survey forms to customers to get their feedback, in particular, it's better if they write something negative. We'd rather have constructive criticisms than comments that always say the food is okay even if it really isn't, in which case we really don't get to know which areas need to be improved."
Has Jack Johnston ever visited any of the Jack's Loft restaurants in the Philippines? "Not yet," Tian Seng says, "but he's seen pictures of our restaurants and was flattered by the concept and especially by our use of his name. He has even joked about charging me royalties for it."
But a visit by the friend from whom the Jack's Loft restaurants got their name doesn't seem far off now, Tian Seng says, for in the meantime Jack Johnston has become his cousin-in-law, marrying one of his first cousins who live in Canada.
When the cousins got back to the Philippines after living and studying in Vancouver for several years, they first started running the local operations of Pho Hoa, a Vietnamese restaurant master franchise that their family had acquired from the US in 1998. Every night, they would close the Pho Hoa store at around 11:00 and would go out looking for a place to hang out. "By that time, though, wala nang masyadong open [very few of the places would still be open]," Tian Seng recalls, "so we decided we might as well open something where we can hang out and at the same time run the place ourselves."
While looking for a concept that would stand out among all the other niche restaurants that were already in Eastwood, the cousins remembered the late-night parties and get-togethers that they used to have at their friend's loft in Vancouver. "We missed those times when we got back here," says Tian Seng. And so, to relive those moments, the cousins invested P5 to P6 million for a lease on a 160-square meter space at Eastwood where they could replicate their favorite hangout in Vancouver.
The place took the form of a New York-style loft restaurant-bar, one furnished with comfortable sofas where customers could relax and chat while taking their meals. It targeted the growing office crowd in the new business-commercial development in Libis, Quezon City, offering a cozy, restful atmosphere for having coffee, pastries, and light meals.
The cousins hired a consultant to help conceptualize the menu, and Tian Seng's wife, an avid baker, also collaborated for its signature offering—Jack's Loft cheesecake. The dessert, which comes in a choice of mango, blueberry, or strawberry toppings, was to become one of the restaurant's specialties, along with "decadent" cakes, apple pies, and carrot cakes that sell for P80 to P120 a slice.
Initially, the bar opened daily at 6:00 p.m., but after six months, the cousins decided to also offer lunch. Jack's Loft then moved its opening to 11:00 a.m. and expanded its menu to include pasta, grilled sandwiches (paninis), and a mix of Asian cuisines.
Tian Seng says the longer hours required the restaurant staff to make major adjustments in their working schedules, but he says it was all worth the sacrifice in the end. It enabled the company to recover its initial investment in only one year.
Two years later, the cousins opened a second Jack's Loft branch at Wilson Street in Greenhills—one that was also designed like a loft but catering to families and weekend crowds instead of office workers. This branch also did very well, thus encouraging the cousins to open a third branch at Robinsons Galleria and a fourth at The Block in SM North EDSA.
Two more Jack's Loft branches are slated to open this year, one at the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City and the other at Robinsons Place Manila. Tiang Seng says that they are going for smaller branches this time—about 53 square meters in store space—to minimize expenses and hasten the payback on their initial investment.
Tian Seng handles the day-to-day operations of the restaurant, and his cousin Erik Cua is in charge of marketing and public relations. He says that because of their experience in running Pho Hoa, managing Jack's Loft has not been difficult, needing only a little fine-tuning in approach because of the differences in their target clientele.
He prefers to be hands-on with the day-to-day operations of the Jack's Loft restaurants, visiting each of them at least three to five times a week. "Even if you can't be at every branch, you have to try your best to call them to find out how they are doing," he says. "Spending about one to two hours in each branch every other day is, I think, more than enough."
To promote customer loyalty, Jack's Loft does in-house promotions such as free cakes or free ice cream when certain purchase levels are reached. It also regularly comes up with new items on its menu.
Tian Seng says that managing expenses and labor is one of the biggest challenges in running a food business, and that having the right team for a branch is very crucial. "You have to see which people work best with whom and try to see who are productive, and then you try to assemble a cohesive team in every branch," he says. Currently, Jack's loft has more than 20 workers in Eastwood, more than 15 in Greenhills, and less than 10 each in Robinsons Galleria and North EDSA.
He says that an entrepreneur needs to be always in touch with what the customers want. "You have to make sure that everything is okay with the food and the servers," he explains. "When you hand out survey forms to customers to get their feedback, in particular, it's better if they write something negative. We'd rather have constructive criticisms than comments that always say the food is okay even if it really isn't, in which case we really don't get to know which areas need to be improved."
Has Jack Johnston ever visited any of the Jack's Loft restaurants in the Philippines? "Not yet," Tian Seng says, "but he's seen pictures of our restaurants and was flattered by the concept and especially by our use of his name. He has even joked about charging me royalties for it."
But a visit by the friend from whom the Jack's Loft restaurants got their name doesn't seem far off now, Tian Seng says, for in the meantime Jack Johnston has become his cousin-in-law, marrying one of his first cousins who live in Canada.
