Financial Adviser: 5 Business Lessons Everyone Can Learn from Gerry Apolinario, Founder and CEO of Gerry’s Grill

In the competitive restaurant industry, building a brand that lasts for decades is no easy feat. Yet Gerry Apolinario managed to do exactly that when he launched Gerry’s Grill in 1997. From a single branch, the restaurant grew into a well-known Filipino dining chain with dozens of branches across the Philippines and overseas.

Gerry’s Grill began when Apolinario and his high school friend opened their first branch along Tomas Morato in Quezon City. At the time, both entrepreneurs were only in their late 20s and had little experience running a restaurant.

But they relied on their passion for food and Apolinario’s own recipes to develop the menu and the concept. One dish helped define the restaurant early on: its sizzling sisig, which soon became one of its most popular offerings. The idea quickly resonated with customers and attracted office workers, barkadas, and families who looked for a lively place to dine and unwind.

The success of the first branch led to rapid expansion across Metro Manila and the Philippines. In 2005, Gerry’s Grill opened its first overseas branch in the United States, followed by locations in Singapore, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Today, almost three decades after its founding, Gerry’s Grill has more than 100 branches in the Philippines and abroad and has established itself as one of the most recognizable Filipino restaurant brands in the world.

How did Apolinario manage to build Gerry’s Grill into a successful restaurant brand at a time when Filipino casual dining chains were still relatively limited? What entrepreneurial instincts helped him turn a single grill bar into a widely recognized restaurant chain?

Here are the five business lessons every entrepreneur can learn from Gerry Apolinario, founder and CEO of Gerry’s Grill:

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When a business is aligned with what a person does best, the learning curve becomes shorter and the quality of work tends to be higher because the skills come naturally. Passion also provides the emotional energy needed to endure the inevitable challenges of business such as slow periods, operational problems, or intense competition.

Entrepreneurs who genuinely enjoy what they do are more willing to invest time, experiment with ideas, and constantly improve their products or services. This passion often translates into authenticity, something customers can sense when a brand is built by someone who truly believes in what they offer.

Apolinario was already successful in the family’s maritime safety equipment business, but he realized the industry did not suit his personality. It was industrial and not very sociable. That self-awareness mattered. He did not reject the family business because it failed; he moved beyond it because he saw that his own energy and interests pointed elsewhere.

Apolinario’s strength was not only cooking. It was the combination of cooking, sociability, and customer instinct. Many entrepreneurs enter industries because others are making money there. Apolinario entered the food business because he had both passion and competence.

His key insight came when he realized that drinks alone would not build a lasting business. By focusing more on food than drinks, he turned his strength in cooking into the brand’s advantage. At the same time, the early change in customers showed his ability to listen to the market.

Instead of insisting on the original concept, Apolinario allowed the business to evolve. That flexibility helped Gerry’s Grill grow from a bar-style hangout into a restaurant brand.

“When I was still in college, I was already working for the family business,” he says. “In 1990, I was out of college and started working full time for the family. It was a maritime safety equipment business where we supplied ship owners with safety equipment. I actually ran it. I started off in operations. I visited the ships and all that, but eventually I ran the business. Up until the early 2000’s, I was running it, quite successfully.  But the nature of the industry was not very sociable, kasi it was more industrial.

“At the same time, ako naman, I’m an extrovert. I was aggressive in pursuing opportunities kasi I was young. There was that ambition to be successful in a business endeavor. Pero I had no idea what it would be. I just knew it had to be outside the family business, because yung family business is limited eh, hanggang dyan lang yan. I mean, the maritime industry in the Philippines can only go so far, right?

“So I thought of something. Since I have a passion for cooking and I like going out, I know what customers like, I was very familiar with the ins and outs of the restaurant industry because I was a customer myself. Sabi ko I might as well put up something that can cater to people like me. I know my talent eh. I know I cook well. So sabi ko I might as well do something I like and hopefully do something profitable with it. That's how it started.  And that’s where I came up with Gerry’s.

“Originally, it was meant to be a hangout place for yuppies like me at the time. But quickly, maybe around three months after operations started, the nature of the customers shifted from an after-office drinking area to a restaurant. Because the target market, the yuppies, started bringing their families.

“And before you know it, we had baptismal parties and birthday parties and all that. And that’s why we quickly shifted from a bar to a restaurant. It was good because I never wanted to cater to an inuman place. Because an inuman place won't get you anywhere. If you're an inuman place, what do you sell? Somebody else's product. A beer is made by somebody else. Vodka, gin, they're made by somebody else for you. So these same products are available in another restaurant, in another bar. So if they're tired of you, they're going to go there and get the same product, right?

“So we were never really a beverage-focused bar, as they say, because those things don't last. We really wanted to have good food. We just didn't know, we just didn’t realize, that it was going to be predominantly, as in 90 percent food. Our food-to-beverage ratio right now is running at 90–10 percent, or 90 percent food,10 percent beverage. And that already includes non-alcoholic drinks like Cokes and soft drinks and all that.”

Expanding a business while the market is in your favor allows a company to convert momentum into long-term advantage. When demand is strong, brand awareness is growing, and customers are responding positively, expansion becomes easier because the market itself is already validating the concept.

Sales from early locations generate cash flow that can finance new branches, while a strong reputation attracts landlords, partners, suppliers, and employees. In other words, growth becomes less about convincing the market and more about capturing demand that already exists.

Apolinario’s approach to expansion shows that “striking while the iron is hot” is not simply about moving fast; it is about recognizing when early success creates a window of opportunity and having the courage to act before that window closes.

Apolinario understood that early success creates momentum that should be used. After the first restaurant in Quezon City became successful, he saw that the concept had already been proven by the market. Instead of treating it as something temporary, he saw it as a signal to move forward. In his view, the real risk was not expanding too soon, but losing momentum while others could copy the idea.

Apolinario’s choice of Makati was not random. At the time, Makati was one of the few major commercial centers where a restaurant like Gerry’s could attract many customers. Instead of waiting for more proof, he placed the brand in the city’s busiest business district. The result confirmed his instinct: the Makati branch became even more successful than the first.

This pattern continued with Libis along C5. At that time, the area was still underdeveloped. But Apolinario noticed that businesses were beginning to move there and believed it would become an important commercial area. By opening early, Gerry’s established its presence before the district fully developed.

Another important insight is that his expansion mindset did not depend on perfect economic conditions. Many of his expansions happened during crises such as the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, the subprime crisis in 2007, and the pandemic in 2020.

Instead of seeing these crises as reasons to stop growing, he treated them as normal parts of doing business. This mindset allowed him to keep building while others hesitated. Entrepreneurs who wait for perfect stability often miss opportunities because markets are rarely calm. Apolinario’s willingness to move forward despite uncertainty helped the company maintain its momentum over the years.

“When we were starting, I was cooking,” he says. “I was doing recipes, I was serving, I was doing the management, I was everything. Kasi we didn't have the structure that we have right now. I actually did everything. So, you know, accounting, ako nagpa-payroll, ako nagbabayad. Kaya pag dumarating yung food, the seafood and all that, when they arrived at 5:00 in the morning, I'm there to receive them to check the quality and the quantity, kung tama ba yung dineliver and all that. I was sleeping only three to four hours a day.

“After the success of our first restaurant, a lot of people were discouraging me to expand. Sabi nila it's too soon, you know, focus on this one first. You might compromise. A lot of people can be like that eh. Parang let's play it easy lang, which is, there's nothing wrong with that naman, pero ako I had other things in mind eh.

“Yung sa akin, strike while the iron is hot. And I said, we are very successful here in Quezon City. Why can't we expand? We have no presence anywhere else. So ano ba yung next best thing? Makati. Because yun lang naman eh. Dati wala namang iba eh. So there wasn't even any. And then the next opportunity, sabi ko we have to be in Makati, because that was the only thing. No BGC yet, no nothing, right?  And then when we opened Makati, that was another huge success.

“It was very, very successful. I think it was even more of successful because it was twice the size of our Quezon City branch. Two floors eh and we were very, very popular.

“And the next thing that came after that was Libis-C5. That was also new at the time. Wala pang tao nun sa Libis. It was a dark area. At the time, yung nagbukas yung Libis, everybody was starting to go there, because everybody was speculating that this would be the next best thing. This is gonna be the next trading area. And true enough, after a year or two, Eastwood came up. And look at Eastwood right now. Tapos diba dikit-dikit na ngayon sa C5? We were the first, we were one of the first to be there because we anticipated that this was going to happen.

“I think in the early 2000s when we started expanding, we were blessed to be offered locations by malls so sumabay kami sa mall expansion.

“Actually, every time we open in a new area, there is always a crisis. We opened our first branch in 1997, which was the Asian financial crisis, and then in 2005 we started looking for a place in the US and we opened in 2006.

“In the US, the first was in Union City, San Francisco. And if you remember, in 2007, there was the subprime crisis and we had our first U.S. venture. Our restaurant there will be 20 years old na, so that was another crisis.

“And then I opened another concept in San Mateo, which was also met by another crisis. I opened in 2020 a concept in San Mateo which is doing very well right now. It's not Gerry's, it's another concept. But as you know, in 2020, after we opened, in two weeks the government shut us down because of COVID.

“So every time we go into something new, there's always a crisis that meets us and makes it challenging. But fortunately enough, we survive and flourish. We now have branches in LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston. Las Vegas is coming up this year. We also have a branch in Singapore.

“When I was starting this, sabi ko, itong restaurant will be a stepping stone for something else. Sabi ko if I could have three to five restaurants that are profitable, I'd be happy. And I was. And sabi ko I'd use the proceeds from that to set up something else. The opportunity presented itself, so sabi ko, e di expand. So now we have 120 restaurants and several concepts coming in.”

Building a brand that stands for consistency and quality creates trust, and trust is the foundation of long-term business success. Customers return to a brand not only because they like the product once, but because they believe they will receive the same experience every time.

When a business delivers consistent quality, it removes uncertainty for the customer. People know what to expect, and that reliability becomes part of the brand’s value. Over time, this reliability turns occasional customers into regular patrons and builds a reputation that spreads through word of mouth.

Apolinario’s approach to building the Gerry’s brand shows that consistency and quality do not happen by accident. They come from deliberate decisions about the brand’s identity, the way food is prepared, and how operations are managed. These choices allowed the brand to maintain its reliability over many years.

First, Apolinario anchored the brand in personal identity, which created natural accountability for quality. By putting his name on the restaurant, the brand became closely tied to his reputation. Second, he understood that consistency requires continuity in the brand’s visual and conceptual identity. While the business evolved, certain elements remained stable. The logo and font, for example, have been preserved for nearly three decades, which signals stability and familiarity to customers.

Another important decision was Apolinario’s refusal to rely on a centralized commissary. While commissaries can improve efficiency and profitability, he believed they would compromise the freshness and quality of the food. By preparing food fresh in every branch, he prioritized product quality over operational convenience.

Apolinario ensured consistency through structure and discipline. Multiple layers of management such as managers, area managers, regional managers, and kitchen heads regularly check each restaurant. These overlapping inspections ensure that every branch meets the same standards.

This system shows his understanding that quality often declines as businesses grow. By creating several levels of oversight, he built a system that constantly verifies quality rather than assuming it will remain consistent.

“When we came up with the name of the restaurant, di ba when you go to a restaurant, you want to have personal affiliation with the owner of a restaurant,” Apolinario says. “Sometimes even the manager. Even now, if there's a choice between place A and place B, and in place A you're personal friends with the manager, you’ll go there.

“If everything else is equal but in place A you're personal friends with the manager, most likely you'll go to place A. Kasi you'll feel welcome. You'll feel personal, right? Eh, I'm the one running the show. I'm the one with the recipes. I'm the one who's going to manage it. So sabi ng mga kaibigan, why don't you just call it Gerry's? So that it's personal to the customer because you want the customers to say, I'm going to Gerry's. And when people say, why are you going to Gerry's? Because I know Gerry. He's a friend of mine. And that's how we started Gerry's.

“To create the logo, I got an architectural firm that I worked with before, so we came up with that. The font, and everything. I mean, 30 years ago the technology was very different. We were stuck with neon lights. Ang hirap pa nong mga panahon na yon. Because it was so expensive and sobrang kuryente, because it's neon, so we had to adapt, you know, to what we have right now, especially sa mga malls. Basically, the font is still there, but you don't wanna change that after 29 years.

“The menu has evolved. We have a lot of new items right now pero on the top, the basics are there. As I mentioned, the sisig, crispy pata and all that, but we have a lot of new favorites right now. And of course the place, the ambiance, you have to look different every now and then. It doesn't mean that if you're successful and you're packed every day, hindi ka na magre-renovate. Every five, seven, or 10 years you have to renovate, regardless of how business is doing.

“And that's what we do. That's why all these places keep renovating. Hindi naman yan nagre-renovate kasi business is going down. Business is flourishing, yet they still renovate.

“Well there's one very big difference in our brand. For one thing, si Gerry, the brand, is the person who cooks. I'm the one who cooks. I'm the one who comes up with the recipes. I'm the person behind it, you know, there aren't too many brands out there that can say that the brand is the one who cooks.

“Sometimes they're the brand and they have a team, but they're not the ones doing it. Ako, ako mismo talaga. I come up with the recipes together with my team, but I lead that. So that's one thing. Another thing that differentiates us is that we have no commissary. Everything is made there in our kitchen.

“It would have been a very profitable venture for us, just like everybody else ‘no if we commissary because it is very profitable. Our problem is that the nature of our food is not commissary-friendly.

“I mean, you do a crispy pata in a commissary and you send it somewhere else three hours away frozen, and then you cook it. It's going to be different from when you produce it on the spot and cook it on the spot. It's totally different. We tried, and it doesn't work. So kami talagang everything is on the spot, in-house, made fresh, daily. Yon talagang totoo yon.

“That's the challenge. And that's where the team comes in. Because quality can only be maintained through redundancies eh. So kailangan yung mga check-ups dun sa mga restaurants super redundant.

“We have several levels of management operations that check up on the restaurants on a weekly basis. We have managers, we have area managers, regional managers. We have head cooks, we have regional cooks, we have kitchen operations heads. Sobrang daming levels of audits. Every now and then, a store gets bombarded with several auditors from different levels.”

A business must differentiate itself because customers need a clear reason to choose it over many others. In crowded industries, customers are often faced with several options that offer similar products or services. Distinction helps a company create an identity that customers can easily recognize and remember.

When companies fail to differentiate themselves, they often end up competing mainly on price. This can reduce profitability and make it difficult to sustain growth. A business with a clear identity, however, can compete on value rather than simply on cost, because customers recognize what makes it different.

Apolinario differentiated himself through his refusal to imitate competitors. He recognized that in an industry filled with talented chefs and established restaurants, copying another concept would not create a lasting advantage.

Instead of studying competitors with the intention of replicating their ideas, he focused on developing his own approach to food. Many businesses become reactive in competitive markets, who constantly adjust their offerings in response to rivals. Apolinario chose a different path by focusing on improving his own menu.

Finally, Apolinario emphasized perseverance as another key to standing out. Quality and strategy alone do not guarantee success because every business faces challenges. What matters is the ability to continue improving and maintaining standards despite difficulties. Over time, businesses that stay committed to their craft build reputations that competitors cannot easily match.

“Yung maraming restaurants is not a threat,” he says. “Yung maraming restaurants is an asset. I mean, you don't want to be in an isolated place where there's nobody else except you. You go to a place where there are a lot of competitors. They're not competitors, they complement your concept. And that's why it's a trading area. And there's no strategy except you know how to serve the best food. You should be consistent, serve the best food, that's it. Good service, good food. Hindi naman rocket science yung restaurant. For as long as your food is good, your service is good, your pricing is correct, you're good to go.

“Nowadays, you can't copy other people. Copycats don't work. You have to be original. Masyadong maraming competitors eh. I mean, like there's just so many good people out there doing their own craft. The restaurant industry alone, how many good Filipino restaurants are there? Ang dami. And they're really good. So you can't just come out here and say, hey, you know I have the money. I'll copycat this, and it's not gonna work.

“We had big competitors before, in the 90s. Of course, mas marami right now but it's all a matter of exposure. Mas maraming ngang restaurants right now, pero mas maraming din namang kumakain sa labas. People go to malls right now. How many malls are there? How many hundreds of thousands of people go out and eat? There's a lot more also, so it's just proportionate.

“We don't really look at competitors na parang, let's move in fear of competition. We look at them like what's going on, but we don't really focus on them. We focus on what we do. We focus on, hey, this is our food. Let's come up with new recipes. Let's come up with something really good and maintain the old ones that are still selling. And let's chart our own course.

“I mean, we glimpse at our competitors once in a while, but we don't really focus on them. We do our own thing. We cook this way, the way we want. We cook this item, let's say, bangus. We cook this bangus the way we feel it's gonna sell. It's the best way we feel that a bangus should be cooked and we do it. We don't look at other people and say, oh how do they cook their bangus? We don't do that. We do it our way. And that's it.

“So number one talaga, you have to be consistent because consistency is everything. It doesn't matter if you're producing nuts and bolts, if you're producing clothes, whatever, you should be consistent in everything that you do. The quality that you serve in your first year should be the same 30 years after.

“And diligence is also important. I mean, you could have the quality, but if you don't have the diligence naman to keep going, because you will be met with challenges. You can do all the quality controls and all the management skills are there, but you will still be met with challenges. Wala namang negosyong hindi dumaan dyan.

“So you have to be…perseverance, not diligence, should be key. And of course, you have to pray syempre. You have to pray because, you know, that's me. I owe everything to God, and that's why you have to rely on Him. A lot of my business decisions were made not because I thought about them, but because I felt that I was guided into them.”

Entrepreneurs who work on something they love often find that the effort required to improve the product and solve problems becomes more natural. Instead of viewing work as a burden, they treat it as an extension of their interests. This mindset often leads to higher standards because people tend to invest more care and attention in activities they enjoy.

A business built around something you enjoy also makes it easier to sustain effort over the long run. Every enterprise encounters setbacks and operational challenges. Entrepreneurs who are motivated only by financial gain may struggle to endure these periods. Those who enjoy the work itself, however, often continue pushing forward because the process still holds meaning for them.

Building a business around something you love is not just about passion. It involves aligning the daily work of the business with the activities that naturally motivate you. In Apolinario’s case, the center of the business is the craft of food itself.

When he says that 90 percent of his job is creating recipes, it shows that the company still revolves around the part of the work he enjoys most. This alignment keeps him closely connected to the product and allows him to remain involved.

Apolinario also demonstrates how passion encourages continuous learning. Instead of relying solely on formal research or theoretical knowledge, he treats everyday experiences as opportunities to study the market. By observing other establishments, he gathers ideas that later influence his own business. Because he enjoys this process, learning does not feel like an obligation. It becomes part of his lifestyle.

Apolinario believes that excessive pressure to meet external expectations can weaken the passion that drives creativity. When decisions are made primarily to satisfy investors or financial targets, the focus may shift away from the core of the business.

Apolinario’s current routine illustrates how deeply the business is integrated into his personal interests. What he calls “operations” such as visiting restaurants and tasting food resembles leisure activities for many people. For him, these activities are both work and enjoyment at the same time.

“I enjoy what I do,” he says. “I mean, that's probably why I do well with what I do, because I enjoy it. When it becomes work, and I have to impress the outside shareholders kasi they invested, then you lose the passion. I'm not saying no to future investment, but it's just that right now I'm happy where things are going.

“For me kasi what's important is that I enjoy what I do. Kasi if I start feeling that it's just work kasi kailangan ng pera then you lose the passion. And that's the most important thing. You have to have passion in what you do. Passion makes you enjoy it. When you enjoy it, you do an excellent job at it. You create the best food, you create the best service, because you're passionate. Ninety percent of my job is creating recipes.

“The number one way to learn that I enjoy a lot is going out. I mean, you can watch YouTube and read all you want pero puro theories lang yun. You need to go to the actual restaurant and experience it for yourself. Ito yung new style of service, ito yung new style of preparation, ito yung food trends. That's where you learn. And I don't mind doing that. I mean, who would mind?

“Can you imagine my work? My work is to eat in the best restaurants all over the world. That's my job. I mean, who would not enjoy that? But it is my job. I go to Europe. I go everywhere. It's not actually research. It becomes research. But actually, it is a vacation as well. Pero totoo naman eh, maraming ideas ka nakukuha from abroad. So yun yung importante.

“It goes back to when you enjoy what you do. You come up with the best products because it's a passionate thing for you to do. And yun nga eh, yung mindset ko kasi is when I know I'm doing this because I need to make money, it's different than when I know I'm doing this because I enjoy it, and by chance I will also make money. Chances are, given the two scenarios, I'll probably make money in that scenario when I'm not pressured to. Kesa dun sa scenario na I'm pressured to make money. I'll probably make more money because I'm not pressured to. That's the way I'm wired. Ganon eh.

“My work right now is the life of a retiree. Ano ba yung work ko? Sabi ko nga, I meet at least once or twice a week with my admin, but the rest of the week, I'm in operations. And what is operations to me? Eating out, checking my restaurants, seeing if they're okay and all that.

“And for me, that's a retirement life. I mean, when I go to the US, I go to my restaurants. I visit San Diego, I visit Houston. Lahat yan iniikutan ko, syempre I have to check my restaurants. And when you're there, syempre you eat in the restaurants around. Nandon ka na, alangan namang dun ka lang sa tindahan mo? So what is that? That's a retirement life. So why should I change anything?

“Since I'm already there, I might as well meet mga partners ko doon. We'd go out because these are friends of mine also. So we go out, we go to different places. I go to Dallas, eat in the restaurants in Dallas, yung mga things like that. So how different is that from being a retired person? It's the same. So bakit pa ko magre-retire?”

Henry Ong, RFP, is an entrepreneur, financial planning advocate and business advisor. Email Henry for business advice [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @henryong888