Features
Not Just for Aristocrats
Engracia Reyes's passion for cooking made her start the Aristocrat Restaurant. Her desire to leave a legacy was what pushed her to involve her children and grandchildren in the business. Now her legacy lives on.
By Elaine Ruzul S. Ramos
At present, the restaurant is being run mostly by the Reyes grandchildren: Raymund oversees the entire operations; his cousin, Louie Llamada who has a culinary degree, takes care of the menu; another cousin, Sylvia Reyes, is in charge of marketing while cousin Cookie Reyes-Rojas manages the bakery, established in 1976. Victor still remains chairman of the board.
Reyes says the fourth generation Reyeses are still in school although they have the option to work in the restaurant during summer. He always advises the younger ones to get their college degrees and work for other companies first before joining the family business. "I want them to know first-hand how it is to be employed so when they join the family business, they know how it is not only to grow the business but also to take care of the employees," he says.
For a family business to work, Reyes stresses the importance of instilling professionalism not only in the organization, but also among family members. The 1950s saw the family hiring outsiders to take charge of the services, research and development, and food and beverage departments. Business was already booming then and there weren't enough family members to oversee the restaurant. At present, professional managers are handling the Aristocrat branches as well as marketing, purchasing, and support services. To date, the restaurant has over 400 employees in its payroll.
Just like any family businesses, the Reyeses had differences of opinion on how best to run the business. With nine family members on the board, critical decisions on whether to expand or not, or the direction the company would take in the future, usually take a while to make.
Reyes, an investment banker, attributes the Aristocrat's staying power to the management's espousal of good business ethics and principles. "We remained true to our calling. We adhere to the integrity and quality of the products we sell. By practicing sound business ethics, we not only maintain the good reputation of our name but also of the business."
Over the years, the Reyeses have constantly evolved their matriarch's concept for Aristocrat, but doing so always with the customers' needs in mind. "We look for ways to innovate in terms of taste, marketing, quality of food, value for money and efficiency in terms of fuel and labor," says Reyes. "We recognize the technological aspect of the business and we also consider the ecological considerations and are aware of our responsibility to the environment."
They keep expanding their menu to include complementing dishes to the Aristocrat's all-time bestsellers: chicken barbeque, chicken honey, pancit canton, pancit palabok, boneless chicken barbeque, dinuguan, halu-halo, lumpiang shanghai and the Aristocrat iced tea. Prices area kept competitive to make the restaurant accessible to people from all walks of life. An order of dinuguan at puto for merienda goes for P126, while 1.2 kilograms of crispy pata can be had for P660.
