Around the world on a bus

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IT’s not quite a small world for One World — a media tour of the PYC Foods Corp. restaurants around Makati showed that. What’s more, they plan to open at least four more One World Delis next year, thereby expanding that world even more.

Guests were herded onto a bus on Nov. 9 to explore all of their restaurants, namely, One World Deli, Cafe Fleur, Sawsaw, One World Butchers, One World Kitchen, and Pardon My French.

One World Deli features goods from all over the world: award-winning Fiscalini Cheese from California, Tierra de España sausages (surprisingly, from Parañaque), and pork from Suffolk. Think of it as a very fancy supermarket, with things you like made at a higher grade — and then, one can have it cooked on the spot (for dining in or takeout).

Cafe Fleur and Sawsaw are PYC’s collaborations with celebrity chef Sau del Rosario. According to Mr. Del Rosario, Cafe Fleur is his way of honoring his mother. “As a child, I witnessed my mom [who] calls our kitchen as her stage. Like a true conductor of an orchestra, I remember on how my mom waved and flicked her hands and each a stroke of the baton was very fluid to make sure every piece is synced and harmonized,” he said on their website. The tour stopped there for some mild brie and mushroom tarts, showing off some French flair for the restaurant. Sawsaw, meanwhile, shows off Filipino food at its best: Mr. Del Rosario served us Pala-vogue, his version of palabok (a noodle dish with a shrimp sauce) made rich with coconut milk, skewered seafood, and salmon roe.

At One World Butchers, we stopped over for chicken sausages and beer (����ý has told One World Butchers’ story here: /arts-and-leisure/2022/11/03/484419/sausage-as-a-canvas/).

One World Kitchen, had us stop for a three-course degustacion by chef Kaye Torres. Tao Corp. founder Julio “Jun” Sy (Tao owns the One World concepts and more through subsidiary PYC) explained the idea of One World Kitchen. “It’s really a platform we want, we created, for people to discover up and coming chefs. The idea was really to create a space where we would feature chefs — not necessarily from the PYC-Tao Community, but even chefs outside,” he said.

The last stop was Pardon My French (we have also told Pardon My French’s story here: /arts-and-leisure/2022/08/18/468979/pardon-my-french-provides-food-for-the-body-and-soul/) for some drinking and dancing, and an interview with Mr. Sy.

While One World Deli’s Makati branch is certainly popular, it won’t be able to accommodate everyone. By next year, PYC plans to open branches in San Juan, the SM Mall of Asia, Quezon City, and BGC. “We have a very small space (in Makati) and certainly, we can’t accommodate the crowd sometimes,” he said. “We also get a lot of repeat customers from those places — even in the South – they’re clamoring for us to be there.”

“We believe that we can offer something to those different communities,” Mr. Sy said. “There are so many more stories to tell.”

Mr. Sy first opened restaurants in the latter part of 2021, shifting his business from fast-moving consumer goods and commodities (Mr. Sy used to distribute coffee; they have also acquired Nacho King snacks). Mr. Sy explained the difference between running upscale restaurants and distributing consumables in bulk. “In the past, we did not own our brands,” he said. “We have the ability (now) to create our own products, our own value proposition to our customers.”

“The needs of the mass market are different from an emerging middle class. In a sense, the product selection is very different.” — JL Garcia