Happi House

Last updated
Happi House Logo Happi House Logo.png
Happi House Logo

Happi House is a quick service teriyaki restaurant concept established on February 29, 1976, [1] in San Jose's Japantown neighborhood. Happi House Restaurants, Inc. owns and operates Happi House Teriyaki restaurants throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Happi House Franchise Corporation is responsible for franchising. The chain's motto is "Where East Meets Fresh," in reference to preparing each meal to order rather than serving pre-prepared items from steam tables. Newer Happi House restaurants range between 2,000 and 2,500 square feet (230 m2) are designed to look and feel like a modern Asian bistro. [2]

History

Joe Ikeda and his business partners, Carlo Besio and Richard Tanaka, were inspired by the foods served during traditional Japanese festivals, and wanted to bring those flavors to the public on a daily basis in a casual and affordable restaurant setting. The original Happi House Teriyaki restaurant opened February 29, 1976 in San Jose, California's Japantown, at the corner of Fifth Street and Taylor Avenue. It was located just a block from the heart of the annual Obon Festival.

The Happi House name

Happi House took its name from the traditional Japanese garment the "Happi," which is a colorful cotton jacket worn during festivals and celebrations. The three founders chose the name because the original inspiration for the chain were the foods served at Japanese festivals where Happi Coats are customary attire. The first uniforms worn by Happi House employees were happi coats; each hand-sewn by a family member. [3]

Expansion and franchising

During the 1980s and 1990s the chain expanded by franchising and building several company-owned units throughout the Bay Area. However, Happi House stopped franchising and closed several units after its first attempt at franchising, in an effort to gain greater control over its operations. [4] In 2007 the company installed a new leadership team, headed up by chief executive officer, Joshua Richman, [5] to grow the brand and return it to franchising. Richman is a concept developer with restaurant and franchise development experience, joining Happi House after serving as president and CEO of Straw Hat Pizza.

Happi House Franchise Corporation was created in 2008 and is now actively engaged in franchising after re-developing and modernizing several key aspects of the brand, including menu and service systems, marketing, and store design.

In 2021, the Almaden Plaza branch permanently closed leaving only two Happi House restaurants in operation: the original Japantown location on Fifth St. and the McKee Rd. location in Alum Rock.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Treacher's</span> American fast food seafood restaurant chain

Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips is an American fast food seafood restaurant and former chain. At the peak of its popularity in the late 1970s, it had 826 stores. However, as of March 2023, there were only three stand-alone Arthur Treacher's locations remaining. The menu offers fried seafood or chicken, accompanied by chips.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fast-food restaurant</span> Type of restaurant

A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoshinoya</span> Japanese fast food restaurant chain

Yoshinoya (𠮷野家) is a Japanese multinational fast food chain, and the second-largest chain of gyūdon restaurants. The chain was established in Japan in 1899. Its motto is "Tasty, low-priced, and quick".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burger King</span> Global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in Florida

Burger King Corporation is an American multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant chain. After Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton (1927–2018) and James McLamore (1926–1996) purchased the company in 1959. Over the next half-century, the company changed hands four times and its third set of owners, a partnership between TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, took it public in 2002. In late 2010, 3G Capital of Brazil acquired a majority stake in the company in a deal valued at US$3.26 billion. The new owners promptly initiated a restructuring of the company to reverse its fortunes. 3G, along with its partner Berkshire Hathaway, eventually merged the company with the Canadian-based doughnut chain Tim Hortons under the auspices of a new Canadian-based parent company named Restaurant Brands International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A&W Restaurants</span> American fast food chain

A&W Restaurants, Inc. is an American fast food restaurant chain distinguished by its "Burger Family" combos, draft root beer and root beer floats. A&W's origins date back to 1919 when Roy W. Allen set up a roadside drink stand to offer a new thick and creamy drink, root beer, at a parade honoring returning World War I veterans in Lodi, California. Allen's employee Frank Wright partnered with him in 1922 and they founded their first A&W restaurant in Sacramento, California in 1923. The company name was taken from the initials of their last names – Allen and Wright. The company became famous in the United States for its "frosty mugs" – the mugs were kept in a freezer and filled with A&W Root Beer just before being served to customers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panda Express</span> American fast food restaurant chain

Panda Express is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in American Chinese cuisine. With over 2,400 locations, it is the largest Asian-segment restaurant chain in the United States, where it was founded, and is mainly located in North America and Asia. Panda Express restaurants were traditionally located in shopping mall food courts, but the chain now operates units in many other environments and formats, including stand-alone restaurants, as well as universities, casinos, airports, military bases, amusement parks and other venues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japantown, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States

Japantown, also known historically as Japanese Town, is a neighborhood in the Western Addition district of San Francisco, California. Japantown comprises about six city blocks and is considered one of the largest and oldest ethnic enclaves in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japantown, San Jose</span> Neighborhood of San Jose in Santa Clara, California, United States

Japantown, commonly known as J Town, is a historic cultural district of San Jose, California, north of Downtown San Jose. Historically a center for San Jose's Japanese American and Chinese American communities, San Jose's Japantown is one of only three Japantowns that still exist in the United States, alongside San Francisco's Japantown and Los Angeles's Little Tokyo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Biersch Brewing Company</span>

Gordon Biersch Brewery is an American brewery founded by Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch. Gordon, a graduate from the five-year brewing engineering program at Weihenstephan, Germany, and Biersch opened their first brewery restaurant in Palo Alto, California, in July 1988. In 1999, the restaurants were sold to what ultimately became CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blimpie</span> American submarine sandwich chain

Blimpie International, Inc. is an American submarine sandwich chain based in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was founded in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1964, by three friends, and has since endured three ownership changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Corral</span> American chain of restaurants

Golden Corral is an American all-you-can-eat buffet and grill chain. It is a privately held company headquartered in the U.S. city of Raleigh, North Carolina, with locations in 43 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CAAMFest</span> Asian American film festival in San Francisco, California, U.S.

CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation's largest showcase for new Asian American and Asian films. It annually presents approximately 130 works in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. The festival is organized by the Center for Asian American Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marble Slab Creamery</span> American icecream parlour chain

Marble Slab Creamery is an American chain of ice cream shops owned by FAT Brands. Its corporate offices are in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kahala Brands is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada-based MTY Food Group Inc. of Montreal, Quebec. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Kahala is one of North America's largest holding company of franchise fast food restaurant companies. In May 2016, the publicly traded Canadian MTY Food Group announced a friendly takeover deal with the Kahala Brands. MTY agreed to pay about US$300 million to acquire Kahala. The two companies generated nearly $2 billion in revenues in the previous year. Jeff Smit was chosen to lead the US operations of MTY.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tokyo Tokyo</span> Restaurant chain in the Philippines

Tokyo Tokyo is a Filipino restaurant chain specializing in Japanese cuisine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMC Kabuki 8</span> Building in California, USA

AMC Kabuki 8 is a movie theater in the Japan Center complex in San Francisco's Japantown neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nijiya Market</span> Japanese-American supermarket chain

Nijiya Market is a Japanese supermarket chain headquartered in Torrance, California, with store locations in California and Hawaii. The store's rainbow logo is intended to represent a bridge between Japan and the United States.

Max's Group, Inc., formerly the Max's Group of Companies, is a restaurant company in the Philippines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarku Japan</span> American restaurant chain with Japanese cuisine

Sarku Japan is an American-Canadian quick serve restaurant chain focusing on Japanese cuisine. Founded in 1987, the chain has grown to include over 180 locations in 32 states across the country, as of September 2021.

References

  1. Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine San Jose Mercury News Article
  2. Franchise Brochure
  3. Archived 2009-08-19 at the Wayback Machine Multi-Unit Franchisee.com
  4. Archived 2009-07-06 at the Wayback Machine Happi House Returns to Franchising
  5. Archived 2009-07-06 at the Wayback Machine Happi House Announces New Leadership Team