Jolibee

You've been to Mcdonald's you're familiar with Wendy's and you obsess over in-n-out burger but if you're like most Americans you've never been to Jollibee the Filipino fast food chain that is rapidly expanding across the globe here's everything you need to know about Jollibee:

In 1975 tony ton cocktail was a recent civil engineering graduate who invested his family's life savings to get into the ice cream business after a tour of a Magnolia ice cream factory Tony Tan Cationg was inspired to change careers and he set up a franchise deal with Magnolia dairy Tony Tan Cationg opened two ice cream stands he added sandwiches and hot items to the menu to respond to customer demand the non-ice cream items quickly became the most popular items on the menu

In 1978 Tong Tan Cationg decided to get out of the ice cream franchise business and Jollibee was born while Jollibee has been able to expand worldwide Magnolia ice cream one of the most recognizable brands in the P8hilippines and the oldest Asian ice cream company is not able to sell its products in the united states due to a legal dispute with a copycat company also called Magnolia ice cream so in the united states the Magnolia ice cream spots you see aren't the same as the one with ties to Jollibee

In 1981 just a few years after the first Jollibee opened mcdonald's arrived in the Philippines Tong Tan Cationg was told that he had two choices Jollibee to Mcdonald's or become a Mcdonald's franchise Tony Tan Cationg decided that he would rather fight Mcdonald's he travelled to the United States to study Mcdonald's and they realized that Mcdonald's had them beat in every way with one notable exception taste Mcdonald's appeals to an american palette while jollibees is more suited to filipinos taste the filipino chain now controls more of the market in Manila than their international competitors Jollibee's success in fighting back against an international mega corporation like Mcdonald's is a filipino success story often held up in business school classrooms in the Philippines as a point of national pride

When Jollibee realized that they would need to compete with large international corporations with slick branding and marketing they gave the company a smart makeover starting with the name the name Jollibee suggests a happy and genial bumblebee so the company used just that as their logo the dapper mascot also known as juicy j wears a chef's hat a tuxedo jacket and a big smile the Jollibee logo was designed with influences from mickey mouse comic books and Ronald Mcdonald a bee was chosen as the logo both because they're hard workers and due to their association with honey a symbol for the sweeter things in life Tony Tan Caktiong reportedly thought of the bee as representing the Filipino people hard-working good-hearted busy and cheerful the young burger came about after Tony Tan Caktiong noticed that people would line up for burgers more than they would for ice cream the young burger was Jollibee's first signature product and for a while Jollibee locations went by the name of Jollibee young burger.

In addition to the young burger Jollibee also sells the burger steak which is similar to a salisbury steak the burger steak features fried hamburger patties that are smothered in mushroom gravy served with a side of rice or mashed potatoes while some Jollibee menu items use regular ketchup they are well known for their banana ketchup spaghetti that's right banana ketchup on spaghetti it's hearty comfort food and thanks to the banana ketchup it's also quite sweet banana ketchup isn't really ketchup but rather a clever substitute for tomato ketchup the people in the Philippines were introduced to tomato ketchup by traveling americans but the area didn't have many tomatoes on its own with which to replicate the recipe enterprising Filipinos instead mix bananas vinegar and sugar to create a ketchup stand-in which was then dyed red jollibee spaghetti known as Jolly spaghetti consists of noodles ground meat sliced hot dogs banana ketchup and cheese banana ketchup spaghetti or filipina spaghetti is a staple party food in the Philippines Jollibee didn't invent it but their version set the standard for a cheap and widely available version of it the Mcdonald's version of the fast food dish known by the unwieldy name of mixed spaghetti bombed in the United states but you can still find it in the Philippines Jollibee's hand-breaded fried chicken known as chicken joy is one of the chain's most popular offerings while Americans might not associate fried chicken with spaghetti the Jollibee chicken joy in spaghetti combo is classic Filipino comfort food the chicken joy marinade is a trade secret every order of chicken comes with a side of gravy regardless of whether or not you choose to order rice or potatoes Jollibee also serves a spicy chicken joy and chicken dippers which are smaller pieces of boneless fried chicken tenders Jollibee has their own version of the traditional Filipino dessert called Halo-Halo which is essentially shaved ice sweetened beans fruit and condensed milk Jollibee's halo-halo is also topped with a piece of flan and a scoop of ice cream the ice cream that Jollibee uses and is found in most halo halo is bright purple and that colour comes from ube a purple sweet potato ube is a staple ingredient in the Philippines while ube desserts have recently exploded in popularity Instagram has thousands of pictures of bright purple cookies cupcakes and ice cream under the ube

Hashtag Jollibee's breakfast menu is called by the delightful name of breakfast joys all of Jollibee's breakfast items come with seasoned rice and a fried egg they serve tapa which is beef tenders tocino which is sweet pork and longanisa which is pork sausage and corned beef just like the famous tuna pie there are some Jollibee breakfast favourite's that are not available in North America Jollibee sells a pretty standard fast food breakfast sandwich in the Philippines but they also serve a pancake sandwich the best-selling pancake sandwich features a fried egg bacon and cheese served in between two pancakes.

It's good while the vast majority of Jollibee franchises are located within the Philippines the company has branched out into the north American Southeast Asian and European markets the company's strategy has focused on marketing to Filipino workers abroad when a new Jollibee location opens in the U.S enthusiastic fans have lined up outside for hours waiting to get their coveted chicken joy or jolly spaghetti when Jollibee opened a tampa location in January 2020 Arden fans of the chain many of them Filipino or Filipino-American lined up starting at 4 30 a.m finally entering the store to confetti and cheers hours later at nine o'clock tampa is Jollibee's second Florida location the company's first Florida location in Jacksonville served 3 000 customers on its opening day in 2017 and that's just the start Jollibee plans to open 150 locations in the U.S and 100 in Canada by 2023 so if you're one of the many people who have never gotten to enjoy the restaurant's food before don't worry you'll get your chance .