MANILA, Philippines — American steakhouse Smith & Wollensky turns 50 years in 2027 and it took nearly as long to open a branch in the Philippines.
The restaurant opened its first Philippine branch, its fifth outside the United States, right in the heart of Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
In an exclusive interview with Philstar.com, Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group in the USA president Nathan Evans shared why it took a while to land in Southeast Asia.
Evans explained that the restaurant was a really a domestic steak restaurant and didn’t open an international branch until around a decade ago in London.
One part of expansion is finding the right partner which takes time, “What you don’t want to do is risk opening a restaurant, and you do business with someone that doesn’t have a proven track record, and then the business closes, and it’s bad for everybody. And so, you take time to find the right partners in the right cities.”
Another is finding the right location, to which Ray Yen, Asia Senior Vice President of Operations for Bayshore Pacific Restaurants Inc. — the company that brought Smith & Wollensky to the Philippines — chipped in it took dozens of locations sighting to land in BGC’s Finance Center.
Funnily enough, Finance Center was the first location Yen and his team scouted two years ago and after nearly 30 visits to other sites ultimately went back to the top of the list.
Bayshore is expanding the restaurant’s reach in Asia by opening a branch in Tokyo, Japan and Shanghai, China next year.
A branch is also opening soon in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But that location as well as the branch in Seoul, South Korea, are managed by a different company.
Evans praised Bayshore for the help they’ve done expanding the Smith & Wollensky brand, “It’s better to do business with people you really enjoy doing business with, people you trust. And every time you do a new territory with a new partner, you never quite know whether it’s going to develop in the same way.”
Yen shared that after Tokyo and Shanghai branches, his team will continue to search for the next opening, mentioning Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Bangkok in Thailand, or another Philippine site as options.
The Bayshore executive also said the restaurant’s target market were the Finance Center’s tenants and middle-income earners in the surrounding area.
“Of course, in this district, we got… the newer money of Manila in this region, and we’re not too far from Makati where the old money is,” Yen explained.
That mindset, Evans said, was similar to the “broad church” plans in the United States where they aren’t just attracting wealthy people to the restaurant.
“It might be that people come only once a year. For them, it’s expensive, but it’s their birthdays, their anniversaries, it’s a proper night out,” Evans continued. “Yu need those people as well as the guys coming down from the Finance Center, you know, drinking on a Thursday or Friday night.”
Evans did say that if a second Smith & Wollensky would open in the Philippines, it could be a lighter version or smaller unit that is more sustainable.
“Finding a big site is quite difficult, but finding something that’s half the size and doing a light version, you can do more of those. So that’s something that we’re looking at,” Evans said.
Yen quipped that might take another 30 site visits to find the perfect second location, but also — like the Finance Center — it could just be fate.
“To get the best spot, don’t rush into a decision. The road is littered with restaurants that pick the wrong site!” Evans ended.
Since opening in New York, the restaurant is best known for serving high-quality USDA Prime steaks that are dry-aged in-house for at least 28 days.
In the pop culture sphere, Smith & Wollensky was a featured location in the films “American Psycho” and “The Devil Wears Prada”.
RELATED: Steakhouse Smith & Wollensky opens 1st Philippine branch in Taguig
