(funky music)
- We're in Vegas!
Hey everybody!
We're in my hometown of Las Vegas.
There's the Vegas sign behind me and a bunch of tourists.
But the spot that I want to take you
is actually off the strip.
It's a chain restaurant from the Philippines.
It's called Max's Restaurant.
And it's a place that I went to growing up with my family.
You celebrate graduations there, reunions, birthdays.
They're known for their fried chicken
and you can get all the classics,
and we're gonna talk to a chef
that has been there for over 50 years.
My family and my friends are coming
and the crew's gonna join us, too, so let's go.
(jazzy music)
Since 1945, Max's has become known as
The House That Fried Chicken Built.
It all began here, after World War II
at Maximo Gimenez's house in Quezon City
where American GIs would come cover to chat and drink.
The GI's missed two things from America.
Steak and fried chicken,
and that's where Max's niece Ruby Trota comes in.
Soon after her breadless fried chicken recipe was born,
eventually Filipinos started dining there, too,
and booking parties for every occasion.
Today, Max's has grown to over 200 locations
around the world.
Max's is marketed toward Filipinos.
Filipino food for Filipinos.
How do you navigate in terms of moving the food forward,
how do you find that balance?
- There's definitely a balance.
Probably about 10 years ago,
we had to make a strategic decision
because we were really saying,
"Let's get into the mainstream,"
meaning non-Filipino market,
and we started looking at menus
and even coming up with an international menu,
even adjusted some of the items to make it more approachable
for non-Filipinos.
And then we started getting kickback
from our Filipino customers, who are our primary market.
- Oh, right.
- They were saying, "What are you doing?"
I don't think we're gonna try to become
like a fusion place, kind of hip,
and there's a place for that,
and I think that is putting Filipino food more on the map.
I think for Max's, our primary market is Filipinos,
and I think we have to stick with that.
Though right now our locations are all in places
where there's about 100,000 Filipinos or more,
and that guarantees our success.
It's a good franchise model.
(funky music)
- [Francesca] What I love about Max's is the consistency.
No matter where I go, it's always the same.
So how do you maintain that at all of your locations?
- [Bill] It starts with having a great chef like Chef Tobal.
He started in the Philippines.
My cousin brought him over here
to open up the first store in Los Angeles,
and then he's been in the US ever since.
Now he's the head chef here.
He'll make something
and we just have to note down every item.
So he really knows every item at Max's
and how it's supposed to taste through the years,
through decades.
- My Tagalog is not that great, but I can understand.
You help open basically every location
in North America. - Every location.
- [Francesca] The chicken, the manok.
- The chicken, the manok is, the chicken is secret.
- Secret.
- I like of course somebody asks me about the chicken.
- So what do you tell them?
(Francesca laughs)
- [Francesca] The recipe hasn't changed right?
- [Cheffy] Always the same, yeah, always the same.
Do this, do that.
- [Francesca] You wouldn't be here.
- Exactly, yeah.
- Yes, and then 51 more.
- 51, oh, I don't think so. (laughter)
I think it's enough, yeah.
- (laughs) It's enough.
Cheffy, I'm so honored to meet a legend.
(applause)
How did Max's become a place for celebrations?
- I think it happened naturally over the years.
It started in my grandfather's house.
There was the big garden, fish ponds, etc.
So it was naturally people started coming
and it filled out the downstairs of the house,
but it was too small,
so they started going into the garden,
and they would start booking parties in the garden,
and then they started having weddings.
So almost every Filipino you meet
has probably gone to some party at a Max's.
- Do you remember the last time we went to Max's together?
- Ha, I can't remember, in LA.
- A long time, yeah, it was in LA.
- [Teresita] It took them a long time to come here.
- It took them a long time to come to Vegas, yeah.
- I was waiting and waiting all the time. (laughter)
- This fried chicken is what makes Max's Restaurant--
- [Teresita] The best chicken that made popular.
- It's the best chicken according to Lola.
What do you like about the fried chicken?
- It's really just basic, but it's well done.
- Yeah, it's simple.
I mean, I love fried chicken.
This is a very specific style and it is really different
from other fried chicken, compared to like Popeyes, KFC,
and yet somehow it's still really crispy and tasty.
I really understand why people like it.
It's really cool that Filipinos that immigrate here,
like my Lola, find that familiarity in the chicken,
and they really look for that.
The fact that Cheffy has been able to create
this consistency with the food, so no matter where you go,
whether it be in the United States or abroad,
you know what you're getting.
Because it's not Filipino fast food,
this is really traditional Filipino food
that a lot of people can enjoy.
There's something for everybody,
and I think that's the reason Filipinos keep coming back.
I hope you enjoyed this episode at Max's Restaurant.
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