Our Foodtrepreneur of the Week: Jamal's Lechon

#FOTW: Jamal's Lechon

Every week, Sugbo Mercado introduces fresh brands that are sure to take a place in your appetites. This is a compilation of our foodtrepreneurs, their stories, and their plans for the future.

Jamal is basically the brainchild of my husband, whose street name is Jamal. Our goal is stand out in the food market and be known for good lechon with a twist. We take pride in being innovative, as we are the first in Cebu to serve lechon stuffed with seafood. We actually have more products which are featured in our Facebook page, but only our bestselling lechon is displayed at Sugbo Mercado. Our customers’ top choice is usually the spicy lechon belly.

Because of our innovative way of business, we’ve actually been recognized by big names around Cebu; people who want to avail of our stuffed lechon. The Osmena’s and the Gullas’ have ordered from us, and we’re very glad that they’ve given interest to our product.

We weren’t originally Jamal’s – we had a shared business with our partner called ReLechonShip. Eventually, we split up and created Jamal’s. My husband came from a family of Lechoneros – both sides – so he’s always wanted to sell lechon. You could say it runs in the blood.

Choosing Sugbo Mercado was such a good decision for us. It has such a wide market range, where people from all walks of life often go to. It’s the best marketing place a business like us could ask for, along with their social media and other advertising strategies lending us a helping hand. With Sugbo Mercado, we’ve become known to the people. As Jamal’s, we’ve only been here for 6 months, and we already have loyal customers.

To be honest, business wasn’t all good from the start. We may have started Jamal’s in January, but we were also planning to close by the end of the month. Sales just wouldn’t boom as expected, and it was bad on marketing expense. But after a little renovation and application of marketing strategies with the staff, we immediately got back up. Since then, the sales have tripled and we’ve been earning more than enough.

We want our lechon to spread nationwide. For now, we’re trying to reach the Manila market and have a branch there. We’ve actually been meeting friends from different places; we travel just to meet them and let them order from us, and a train of orders would follow. We even reached Singapore a month ago. Reconnecting with our old colleagues and friends from the past and the present has helped improve our business that way. Hopefully soon enough, our lechon reaches past the appetites of our own circle and be loved all over the country. 

- Madel Basiga of Jamal's Lechon; Our Foodtrepreneur of The Week. Visit Jamal's Lechon at Sugbo Mercado, Garden Bloc of IT Park. We are open every Thursdays-Sundays 5pm-1am. See you there at #yourWEEKENDfoodmarket!

Our Foodtrepreneur of the Week: Mr. Benny

#FOTW: MR. BENNY

Every week, Sugbo Mercado introduces fresh brands that are sure to take a place in your appetites. This is a compilation of our foodtrepreneurs, their stories, and their plans for the future.

Mr. Benny is all about shaved ice cream cultured by the Taiwanese but we upgraded it to make it our own Chinese shaved ice cream. Our bestsellers are chocolate, mango, and matcha. 

We were inspired to start Mr. Benny because we want to share the culture of the Chinese. We noticed that we have a lot of sorbetes ice cream here in the Philippines but not much shaved ice cream. We want many Filipinos to experience our style of shaved ice cream.

         We chose Sugbo Mercado specifically because its market has so much potential in it. People of all ages always visit Sugbo Mercado. I also think that this dessert that we offer can become popular through the weekend food market. We have been with Sugbo Mercado for only 4 months and so far there have been good times and bad times. I believe that success is maybe seasonal because there are certain events here in Cebu and the weather is always changing.

As for the future of Mr. Benny, I have many plans.Other than opening in SM Seaside, maybe we will expand our branches. We might put some in Davao and maybe some in Mandaue.

- Patrick del Rosario of Mr. Benny; Our Foodtrepreneur of The Week. Visit Mr. Benny at Sugbo Mercado, Garden Bloc of IT Park. We are open every Thursdays-Sundays 5pm-1am. See you there at #YOURweekendFoodmarket!

Our Foodtrepreneur of the Week: Grilled Surfin' Ribs

#FOTW: Grilled Surfin' Ribs

Every week, Sugbo Mercado introduces fresh brands that are sure to take a place in your appetites. This is a compilation of our foodtrepreneurs, their stories, and their plans for the future.

“ My husband and I love to eat and cook together with friends. So, we decided to open a restaurant and create this food concept as we have the passion and love for ribs and seafood. Grilled Surfin’ Ribs is about our love of eating and cooking. We emphasized it as “grilled” as here in Sugbo Mercado, we only serve our best selling ribs and different kinds of pasta.  

I am glad to say, that we joined Sugbo Mercado since their Day 1 and still we’re here. We really loved their concept and on how they take care of their tenants.  They have a strong team to market their tenants and they never fail to astound us.

Being one of their original tenants makes us proud and grateful that they entrusted us to provide good food and service to our locals. Even, tourists and/or foreigners would go to Sugbo Mercado just to try our ribs! And now, we're thinking of reviving some of our seafood products to bring back in Sugbo Mercado like our famous crab claws, garlic shrimps, and also, our chicken wings. We also plan to be back in the restaurant scene and open a space so we could serve our old menu to our suki’s. 

-Sharon Grace and Raymond Jimenez, owners of Grilled Surfin’ Ribs; Our Foodtrepreneur of the Week.

Visit Grilled Surfin’ Ribs at Sugbo Mercado. We are open every Thursday to Sunday, from 5PM until 1AM. See you there at #YOURweekendfoodmarket!