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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 Coat," 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 more than 800 stores. However, as of June 2021, there is only one stand-alone Arthur Treacher's location remaining. The menu offers fried seafood or chicken, accompanied by chips.
Burger King (BK) is an American-based 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 in 1954, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton (1927–2018) and James McLamore (1926–1996) purchased the company and renamed it "Burger King". Over the next half-century, the company changed hands four times and its third set of owners, a partnership of 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 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.
A&W Restaurants is an American fast food restaurant chain distinguished by its burgers, draft root beer and root beer floats. Being the oldest restaurant chain in America, 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 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.
MOS Food Services, Inc., doing business as MOS Burger, is an international fast-food restaurant chain (fast-casual) from Japan. Its headquarters are in the ThinkPark Tower in Ōsaki, Shinagawa, Tokyo. At one time its headquarters were located in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The brand opened a location at the Tokyu Milano cinema and entertainment complex in Shinjuku in the mid-1990s replacing Wimpy, but closed in November 2011.
Japantown is a neighborhood in the Western Addition district of San Francisco, California.
Lotteria Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company that operates a chain of fast food restaurants in East Asia, having opened its first restaurant in Tokyo in September 1972. Taking its name from its parent company, Lotte Corporation, it currently has franchises in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. The origin of the name is a combination of corporate names Lotte and Cafeteria.
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.
Blimpie International, Inc., doing business as Blimpie, 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.
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.
The Counter is a high-end casual dining restaurant chain in the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, and Japan offering custom-topped gourmet burgers with over a million possible burger and burgers-in-a-bowl combinations through a checklist-style menu.
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 near $2 billion in revenues in the previous year. Jeff Smit was chosen to lead the US operations of MTY.
Japadog is a small chain of street food stands and restaurants located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The chain, which specializes in hot dogs that include variants of Japanese-style foods like okonomiyaki, yakisoba, teriyaki and tonkatsu, is owned by Noriki Tamura.
MTY Food Group is a Canadian franchisor and operator of numerous casual dining, fast casual, and quick service restaurants operating under more than 70 brand names, some of them through wholly owned subsidiaries. Headquartered in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent, Quebec, the number of outlets carrying MTY brands reached 5,500 in 2017. Stanley Ma is the group founder, President and CEO. MTY Food Group's brands include Thaï Express, Country Style, Groupe Valentine, Vanelli's, Extreme Pita, Cultures, La Crémière, Sushi Shop, Veggirama, Caferama, O'burger, Tiki Ming, Vie & Nam, Au Vieux Duluth Express, FranxSupreme, ChicknChick, Croissant Plus, Koya Japan, Kim Chi, Panini, Tandori, Tutti Frutti, Villa Madina Mediterranean Cuisine, Sukiyaki, Taco Time, Yogen Früz, and the Canadian branch of TCBY.
AMC Kabuki 8 is a movie theater in the Japan Center complex in San Francisco's Japantown neighborhood.
Burger King Israel is the Israeli franchise of international fast food chain Burger King. Burger King first entered the Israeli market in 1993. It eventually closed in 2010, after the franchise owner Orgad Holdings purchased local chain Burgeranch and converted all Burger King locations in the country into Burgeranch locations. In July 2013, it was announced that Burger King was attempting to re-enter Israel. Initial discussions with its original Israeli franchise owner Yair Hasson were unsuccessful, and it finally secured re-entrance to the country by entering into a deal with a French company. The first restaurant, under the new franchise group opened in February 2016, at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. As of 2020, there are 10 branches in the country, including 9 in Tel Aviv and its suburbs, and 1 in Eilat located in Ramon Airport. Out of all these locations, 7 are Kosher branches.
Fransmart is a franchise development company responsible for the growth of many restaurant brands. Founded in 2000, the company has corporate headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia and Irvine, California. Fransmart specializes in restaurant development and franchising of emerging brands.
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.
Sarku Japan is an American 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.