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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]
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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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