Hoy, a new Filipino street-food restaurant in New York City, is positioning itself within the crowded dining scene by channeling the high-energy atmosphere of Manila’s night markets, where food, drinks, and crowds spill into the streets. The concept merges fast-casual Filipino flavors with the unfiltered excitement of after-dark bazaars, creating a space that feels both familiar and fresh. Even before its doors open, the project is generating buzz—not only through its bold aesthetic but also its merchandise strategy and pop-culture references, which feel deliberately crafted yet spontaneous.
Cyed Adraincem, the restaurant’s founder, began a recent morning at 4 a.m., scrubbing the sidewalk outside the future Hoy location. “I wanted to beat all the foot traffic,” he said. That same sense of urgency shapes the restaurant’s design, blending Filipino street-food traditions with the raw, communal energy of a night market. The menu remains simple: barbecue skewers, lumpia, and sandwiches, served at counter-height tables with an open kitchen layout. The goal is to eliminate any pretense, offering food and drinks in a space that pulses with life.
Filipino culture meets modern design
The branding avoids clichés while deeply embedding Filipino culture. The logo and wall patterns draw inspiration from one of the oldest textile patterns in the Philippines, while shelves stocked with snacks mimic sari-sari stores, the iconic neighborhood shops of the Philippines. Family cookbooks, some decades old, sit alongside those of local favorites, reinforcing the restaurant’s ties to community. The team deliberately sidestepped obvious symbols like the sun or barong tagalog shirts, instead incorporating barrel men, the hand-carved wooden figures once sold as tourist gag gifts. “It’s a pretty simple menu, nothing too fancy, mostly traditional, with chef techniques that we’ve learned over the years,” Adraincem said. “But it’s also how Filipinos act: It’s fun, it’s a gag gift.”
The restaurant’s pop-culture references move at the same breakneck pace as its menu. A Knicks-themed choking sign, a nod to the team’s shared love of basketball, was designed on the spot by Kristofferson San Pablo, Adraincem’s cousin and a Los Angeles-based artist. “Everything’s on the fly, baby,” Adraincem said. “Kris’ art is very pop-culture heavy. For him, it’s kind of second nature.
I bring things up, and he’s like ‘Oh yeah, I’ve already been working on something like that.’ He keeps up with all of it.” The merchandise plan, keychains, shirts, and totes, will launch at opening, with collaborations from local artists. Adraincem cites the success of bar merch in cocktail lounges as proof that the approach is sound. “I think more people are wearing clothes that [signify] places that they love,” he said.
Hospitality expertise drives Hoy’s DIY approach
Adraincem brings nearly 17 years of hospitality experience to the project, seven of them spent behind cocktail bars where merchandise sold quickly. He’s determined to replicate that momentum at Hoy. The interior, still under construction, reflects that urgency. Realistically, furnishing a restaurant is a lot of legwork, and everything is so expensive right now. It’s probably the worst time to open a restaurant. So it’s about doing your due diligence and comparing prices. Adraincem goes to Home Depot, Amazon, The Container Store and sees who has the best price, then goes from there. Shelves display personal knickknacks, and a corner is being transformed into a mini jungle, with lemongrass, calamansi trees, and labuyo chiles growing in a planter pond.
Opening delays have complicated the timeline. A setback with the Department of Buildings over gas-fired cooking equipment means the kitchen won’t be fully operational at launch. Instead, Hoy will begin with a residency featuring Arellano Pandesal, a Queens-based Filipino bakery known for its pandesal. The bakery will occupy the kitchen space while the team handles drinks, serving as a soft launch to introduce New Yorkers to Filipino flavors.
Casual dining to expand Filipino flavors
The team’s vision for Hoy centers on creating an informal, high-energy dining experience that introduces New Yorkers to Filipino street food without the constraints of a traditional sit-down restaurant. “I’m trying to introduce Filipino food to a broader audience because I feel like we’re underrepresented in New York City,” Adraincem said. “We’ll be serving barbecue skewers, lumpia, and a couple different sandwiches. I think the New York dining scene wants something more casual, more affordable right now. They don’t want something pretentious; they just want to eat and have a good drink.”
