Max's of Manila

History

Max's Restaurant's beginnings started in 1945, after World War II. Maximo Gimenez, a Stanford-educated teacher, befriended the American occupation troops stationed at Quezon City. Because of this friendship, the soldiers regularly visited Maximo's nearby home for a drink or two. Later on, the troops insisted that they pay for their drinks. This prompted Maximo to open a cafe, where the troops could enjoy food and drinks. It opened its first restaurant at 21 Scout Tuazon, Brgy. Laging Handa, Quezon City.

The cafe initially served chicken, steak and drinks. Maximo's niece, Ruby, who managed the kitchen, created a special recipe for chicken that became an instant favorite for the GIs. Soon, the Filipino public heard about the delicious chicken recipe and thus they came to the small restaurant and Max's Restaurant was born.

Over the years, Max's Restaurant's popularity grew and it became known as "the house that fried chicken built." It has expanded in Metro Manila, Southern and Northern Luzon, Cebu, and to California and other places in the United States. It has also expanded to Canada with plans of opening restaurants to other countries.

Max's Restaurant has established itself as a household name in the Philippines, an institution, and a proud Filipino tradition. The second and third generations of the family continue to zealously uphold the standards and traditions set by Maximo and Ruby for all Max's Restaurants.

It opened its doors to franchising in the second quarter of 1998.

The company, as Max's Group, currently operates Max's, Pancake House, Dencio's, Kabisera, Teriyaki Boy, Sizzlin' Pepper Steak, Le Coeur De France, Maple, Yellow Cab, Krispy Kreme, Jamba Juice, and Singkit.

Locations

Max's Restaurant currently has over 127 branches in the Philippines. The chain also has branches in the U.S. states of California, Hawaii, New Jersey and a Nevada branch soon to open. It has 3 locations in Canada in Toronto, Ontario, Vancouver, British Columbia and Edmonton, Alberta. In a September 2014 press event, it was announced that more branches will be opened by 2015 in: Sydney, Australia; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Queens, New York. In 2016 Max's was also opened in Salmiya, Kuwait.

Products

The restaurant's signature dish is its fried chicken. Aside from this, Max's Chicken also offers traditional Filipino dishes such as, kare-kare, nilagang báka, sinigang, crispy pata, tapsilog, lóngsilog, and litsón kawalî.

Marketing

In earlier television and cinema advertisements, the restaurant usually marketed itself as a place for Filipino families to get together. It also established its slogan "Sarap to the bones!" ("Delicious to the bones!").

From April to June 2004, a popular series of television advertisements, entitled "Forever Yours" told the story of a Max's employee who was the childhood love of a popular TV celebrity, played by Piolo Pascual. The series showed the two characters as children, then as adults accidentally meeting at Max's. The denouement of the story is when the celebrity recognizes the employee from their childhood. This commercial became so popular that it launched the showbiz career of Isabel Oli, the model who played the employee.

Aside from its advertising, the story of how Max's Restaurant started has entered into popular culture. It was portrayed in the episode "Sino si Max?" ("Who is Max?") of the long-running Filipino drama anthology Maalaala Mo Kaya. Max's has 4 celebrity endorsers: Gary Valenciano (1995-1998), Piolo Pascual (2002-2009), Isabel Oli-Prats (2004-2009) and in recent years, Coco Martin. All these endorsers are signed to ABS-CBN.