Jollibee started as an ice cream parlor.
Tony Tan Caktiong opened two Magnolia ice cream parlors in Metro Manila in 1975. Customers kept asking for sandwiches, so he added them, then hot meals, and within three years the parlors had become fast-food restaurants. In 2026 the boy who had washed dishes in his father’s restaurant was worth $1.1 billion.
Jollibee on Brandseum