Max’s Restaurant thanks its customers as it turns 70

Tuesday night was a big night for the fried chicken chain Max’s Restaurant as the company celebrated 70 years of “chicken love.” At a testimonial dinner held at the restaurant’s flagship restaurant along Sct. Tuason Street in Quezon City, the company treated its guests to a veritable feast featuring the restaurant’s specialties, including kare-kare, lumpiang ubod, crispy pata, and of course their house specialty.

The company has grown from being a small eatery serving sandwiches and drinks for US military personnel stationed in the QC area as part of the Joint US Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG).

As the story goes, founder “Nanay” Ruby Trota was once asked to serve a group of hungry troops fried chicken. In an act of inspired improvisation, she dressed a chicken and had it fried in a vat of oil. The Trota branch of the clan, now in its third generation, still runs the chain, and senior company officials at the dinner emphasized how, at an early age, they were invited to help out at the restaurant.

Apart from the dinner, the company presented key moments in its history, most notably its acquisition of the Pancake House Group, making it one of the largest food businesses in the country.

They featured a video showing how, to celebrate their anniversary, they treated customers to lunch at several of their branches in Metro Manila. They also exhibited memorabilia from the past 70 years, including menus that mentioned, among other things, that it cost 5 pesos to have a whole chicken dinner. (A menu from the 1980s put it at 86 pesos.)

What excited the author was the chain’s newest venture, Hotel Meranti, which is located next to their Sct. Tuazon branch. The hotel, a company official told us, was meant to complement the restaurant—out-of-town visitors to functions held at the restaurant would need a place to stay.

With designs by architect Budji Layug, the rooms in Meranti feature custom-made beds by a Swiss firm based in Cebu that promise to give customers maximum comfort. A penthouse roofdeck, featuring views of the city, would make a good venue for parties and other events. The hotel, which is currently on a dry run, opened last August.

Guests we spoke with that night agreed that Max’s was all about memories. My own memory of the restaurant is pretty simple—before I turned 11, I used to visit the flagship branch with my folks almost every month. As the chain continues to grow, there is hope that the brand will continue to make delightful memories for its customers.


 — BM, GMA News