Success Beyond Showbiz: Why chicken will make Joel Torre memorable
For those who frequent Granada Street in Quezon City, Sct. Esguerra Street also in QC, Malugay Street in Makati, and Tagaytay City’s scenic main road, award-winning actor Joel Torre is JT—the man who serves delectable Bacolod Chicken to loyal patrons -- from the avid CEO emerging from boardrooms, to the exhausted taxi driver plying his trade, to the excited tourist wanting to know more about local delicacy.
For them, JT’s Manukan Grille is a mouth-watering prospect. It has been so for nine years in the running. Who would think that while Joel has been racking up one award after another, and impressing millions with his convincing acting style, he was actually earning even more by grilling chicken on the side?
Eureka moment
Joel’s eureka moment came in 2003, when he noticed that chicken inasal, the delicacy of Bacolod, his home province, spawned broadened patronage and pleased palates nationwide, especially in Metro Manila, where restaurants sprouted here and there. Occupying a small lot along Granada Street, JT’s Manukan Grille began operations with a mere seven tables and just about P300,000 cash in hand for overhead. Although it started small, the restaurant’s location became its goldmine.
Granada Street is a popular thoroughfare where huge volumes of pedestrian and vehicular traffic converge. It is the gateway from the Ortigas Avenue-Mandaluyong-Pasig area to the E. Rodriguez-Quezon City area, and back. As such, word of this scrumptious chicken variant would go around easily to the right people—businessmen, executives, students, taxi drivers, store salespersons, housewives with children or just the accidental traveller who happened to drop by. And, with an affordable menu—need I say more?
Biggest box office hit
Joel has now replicated his success as an actor in this business venture. From accommodating just 60 customers at the most when it started, JT’s Manukan Grille now serves thousands each day in all of its 21 branches nationwide. Joel’s simple, homegrown, yet distinctive Bacolod chicken inasal recipe has become the box-office hit none, if any of his film or TV projects combined can ever eclipse.
His restaurants are earning nearly a million pesos a day!
"I had a certain talent fee as an actor tapos sabi ko, 'naku, nahihigitan pa nito 'yung talent fee ko," Joel said nonchalantly in an interview with ABS-CBNNews.com.
Given showbiz’s fickle, temporal nature, this venture reassures Joel of continued earnings. Despite his continued triumphs in this business, Joel leaves no stone unturned in sustaining its success.
Secret to success
For him, popularity or celebrity power does not draw patrons to his business, but continued care and improved product quality, in this case the marked consistency and winning taste of the JT Manukan Grille Bacolod chicken inasal, would always make people come and come back.
More than any of his films or TV dramas, Joel’s Bacolod chicken wonder will keep him clearly etched in our memory.
Look at Kenny Rogers!
