Shakey’s Brand Guidelines: From a 1954 Sacramento Parlor to a Listed Philippine Chain

Beer, pizza and Dixieland piano.

Shakey’s began in Sacramento, California, in 1954. English Wikipedia dates the opening to 30 April 1954 and names the founders as Sherwood “Shakey” Johnson and Ed Plummer. The International Directory of Company Histories, in its entry on Jacmar Companies, describes the first premises as a small place at 57th and J Streets that served beer with live entertainment, mostly Johnson playing Dixieland jazz on the piano; with the takings from the first nights, it says, Johnson bought the makings of pizza. English Wikipedia adds that the building had been a grocery store and that the pizza ovens were not finished on the opening weekend, so only beer was served at first.

Music stayed part of the format. English Wikipedia says Johnson hired a local Dixieland band, that banjo music became a fixture of the parlors, and that until the early 1970s printed menus carried the words of barbershop songs so customers could sing along while their food was made. The company history says Plummer furnished the parlor with checkered tablecloths and irreverent signs. Another feature, English Wikipedia says, was a large window between the dining room and the kitchen, through which diners could watch pizzas being made and put in the oven.

A second parlor opened in Portland, Oregon, in 1956, and the partners began selling franchise rights in 1957, the company history says. By 1967, when Johnson sold his half of the business, there were more than 250 Shakey’s parlors in the western United States, by that account; the buyer was Colorado Milling and Elevator Company, and Plummer sold his interest the following year. The first Shakey’s outside the United States opened in Manitoba, Canada, in 1968, and English Wikipedia dates the arrival in Japan to 1973.

Two owners on two sides of the Pacific.

Ownership of the American company changed repeatedly. The company history says the Hunt family’s Hunt International Resources, based in Dallas, bought Shakey’s Pizza, Inc. in 1974, when it had more than 300 locations across North America, and that new restaurants opened in Asia the following year. In 1984 two of the chain’s larger franchisees bought it, and about five years later the American business, then about 215 restaurants by that account, was sold to Inno-Pacific Holdings of Singapore, which already held Shakey’s restaurants and international franchise rights in Asia.

In 2004 Jacmar Companies of Alhambra, California, which had opened its first Shakey’s as a franchisee in 1964 and ran 19 of them, bought Inno-Pacific’s 63 American locations, the company history says, and Shakey’s USA became a Jacmar subsidiary; Inno-Pacific kept about 200 restaurants in Japan, the Philippines and Singapore. English Wikipedia says that as of October 2018 there were 51 Shakey’s restaurants in the United States, almost all in Southern California, and that the last one east of the Mississippi, in Auburn, Alabama, closed in April 2019.

The brand reached the Philippines in 1975. English Wikipedia says the franchise there was first held by San Miguel Corporation, starting with a restaurant on Makati Avenue in Makati, and was sold in 1987 to International Family Food Services, Inc. (IFFSI), a group led by the Prieto family. It says IFFSI has owned the Shakey’s trademark in the Philippines since 1999, moved from a mostly fast-food format in 1997 to family casual dining in 2003, and sponsored the Shakey’s V-League volleyball competition from 2004 to 2017. Rappler reported in December 2016 that the Philippine company holds perpetual rights to the brand for the Middle East, Asia apart from Japan and Malaysia, China, Australia and Oceania.

How Asian restaurant chains present themselves.

Asian restaurant chains tend to present themselves through what happens in the kitchen. Din Tai Fung’s own history page opens with the xiaolongbao and its count of 18 folds, and the Taipei Times traced that formula to the founder’s son working alongside the shop’s first dim sum chefs.

Names and shop fronts carry a lot of the identity. Tim Ho Wan’s Chinese name means “to add good luck,” English Wikipedia says, and Din Tai Fung’s joins the names of a former employer and an oil supplier, according to the company and the Taipei Times. Long-kept signs, such as the brushed board that Din Tai Fung says still hangs at its first restaurant on Xinyi Road, link a chain of many branches back to one room.

Dish naming is usually plain and descriptive: barbecue pork buns, steamed rice rolls, pan-fried turnip cake, soup dumplings. Groups can list signature dishes by name when they announce deals, as Jollibee Foods Corporation did for Tim Ho Wan in November 2024, GMA News reported. Guidebook recognition travels with a name too: Tim Ho Wan’s first shop in Mong Kok appeared with a star in the 2010 Michelin Guide, Gourmet Traveller reported in 2015, and that star still features in how the chain is introduced in press coverage.

The corporate side is published too. Company pages set out founders and founding years, parent groups describe their portfolios in stock exchange disclosures, and franchise partners appear in trade press when rights change hands. This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand — who founded it, who owns it and how it grew — and marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A listed Philippine owner.

In March 2016 the Po family’s holding company, Century Pacific Group, and Singapore’s sovereign investor GIC agreed to buy a majority of IFFSI from the Prieto family, who kept a minority stake, The Philippine Star and Rappler reported on 23 March. The deal also covered Bakemasters, a bakery supplier to Shakey’s, and the Philippine franchise of the American pizza chain Project Pie. Both reports put the chain at close to 170 Philippine stores at the end of 2015, and The Philippine Star named its signature products as thin-crust pizza and Chicken and Mojos.

Later that year the company was renamed Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. (SPAVI), English Wikipedia says, and on 15 December 2016 it listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange under the symbol “PIZZA,” Rappler reported that day, describing it as owned by the Po family. In the same report the company said it had signed a franchise agreement with partners in Kuwait to open Shakey’s stores there.

SPAVI has since added other brands. BusinessWorld reported on 8 March 2022 that SPAVI and its subsidiary Wow Brand Holdings had acquired the assets and intellectual property of Potato Corner, a kiosk brand that SPAVI said dated from 1992, including full ownership of the Singapore company that runs Potato Corner there. In September 2024 its board approved a wholly owned subsidiary in the United States to own and operate stores, franchise them and market the group’s brands in North America, The Manila Times and QSR Media reported in October 2024.

For a design guide, Shakey’s shows how one restaurant name can divide into separately owned businesses on either side of the Pacific, each with its own territory and history. Compare Jollibee and Max’s Restaurant, two other chains with long histories in the Philippines. For this guide we use tomato red, crust gold and a deep green with a slab serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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