Welcome to Baguio, Benguet, City of Pines and the summer capital of the Philippines. Home to various historic and tourist spots. Like this, that, oh this, and also that. And it‘s also home to Habibis Grill, the only authentic Lebanese restaurant in the city.
That‘s Ramzy, he’s the owner. And that‘s Robert, his cousin and partner.
Hello.
So, Ramsey, how did it all start?
– Habibis started as a practicum in SLU under Ma’am Gumnad, then after I graduated me and my cousin were thinking of an idea of opening a Lebanese, Café restaurant in Baguio, where he was supposed to take care of the coffee because he’s a coffee drinker, and I was supposed to take care of the kebab because I had the practicum in SLU, and from there we were thinking that Baguio does not have a proper Lebanese restaurant/Mediterranean cuisine, so we came up with an idea that people will like, we thought of the humus, falafels, and so on.
What were the challenges you faced when you started?
– One of the greatest challenge we had was the capital, I was a newly graduate and so is my partner, so we wanted to try make Habibis work with what we had, we did not want to ask help from our parents, so we asked each other how much do you have, so we both came up with 20,000 pesos and with the total of 40,000 pesos, we tried to get all the materials and everything we need to renovate the shop. The most expensive was to build the kitchen, we had to buy blenders, chopping boards, knives, and all of these cost money, and the most expensive of all is our griller, because we went around town looking for it and all the grillers was so expensive, that’s more than what we have to renovate and start a business. So we just went around, checking how are these grillers made, and we got ideas and went home, with the resources we had, we talked to a friend we know and asked him to weld us and build us a griller.
What’s next for you and what advice can you give to the aspiring entrepreneurs out ther?
– For Habibis, we would want to expand in the near future, hopefully we can pen in Subic, Manila, or Clark, or maybe even open one more branch in Baguio when given the opportunity. Also we would want to try serve more authentic cuisines that we could let the people taste because there’s still a lot to the Lebanese cuisine that a lot haven’t tried but its hard to serve because it takes a few days to prepare the food before you can eat it. So it’s going to take a long process but were going to try our best to see what we can do and offer it to the people.
– My advice to Entrepreneurs is to have the right attitude, be honest, be humble, if you have an idea be open. Also what’s important is your connections, if you talk to good people, hang out with them, have a good character, other people will respect you more.
– Then failure is guaranteed if you don’t try, but if you try you might succeed. So in Entrepreneurship, one thing I learned is you have to take the extra step, if you have an idea, that is what Entrepreneurship is all about, you try to make an idea work for you and for the people around you and for the future, because everybody has an idea, but to make an idea work is what makes you a good Entrepreneur.
Wow, that‘s really great advice. Thank you again Mr. Ramzy
– Your welcome! Good luck to all the Entrepreneurs out there, we wish the best to all of us.
I‘m feeling kind of hungry, let‘s go inside and see what they are serving up.
As they say in Baguio City, “Naimas”.