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
Seventy years later, Aristocrat now boasts an integrated complex on Roxas Boulevard, which houses the dine-in restaurant, a bakeshop, and a 24-hour convenience store. Among the future plans is the opening of a culinary school inside the complex. Capable of accommodating 20 students at a time, the school will be offering short culinary courses as well as a six-month commercial cooking program.
The family is also studying the feasibility of putting up foreign branches, but this would have to wait until the restaurant has sufficiently saturated the Philippine market. Once, the Reyeses tried to franchise the restaurant within the family, but their not knowing enough about franchising caused its failure. "Mahirap since there was no systematic methodology. There were no food standards when these should have been uniform in all our branches. Now we know professionally how to go about franchising and we think that this time, it would work," says Reyes.
True enough, the first Aristocrat franchise owned by a non-family member opened at the Subic Bay Freeport in Olongapo City last year. Reyes says they are playing it safe this time by scrutinizing each franchise application (they have been receiving a lot) to make sure Aristocrat's food standards are met all the time.
By yearend, Aristocrat will have a total of seven branches, including the franchised outlet in Subic and the flagship restaurant along Roxas Boulevard. The other branches are located at Jupiter Street in Makati City, Robinsons Place Ermita, SM Mall of Asia, SM San Lazaro, and SM North.
Reyes says each restaurant's return on investment ranges from eight percent to 15 percent annually depending on its location. Payback period for the mall branches, which book an average sale of P2 million per month, is three to four years.
But more than the numbers, the family takes pride in the fact the restaurant remains well loved. Seven decades after Lola Asiang served her first dishes, the legacy lives on. Her 13 children and grandchildren who have taken over the reins of management will explore every opportunity and overcome any challenge to ensure that this legacy would be carried over to the next generations.
The Aristocrat Restaurant
432 San Andres Street, Manila
Telephone: (02) 524-7671 to 80
Fax: (02) 523-0136
Email: aristocrat70@gmal.com
