About Us
Fresh Asian medley food with superior customer service using mom and dad’s homemade recipes. That’s Flip-n-Yaki.
Our family has been bringing our homemade recipes to life since the 70’s. We’ve always love sharing our dishes with family and friends. It makes for a good excuse to always get together and just appreciate life in the process.
My father spent 20 years in the Navy cooking food for his fellow shipmen. After retiring, he continued to share his recipes and love for cooking by opening up his very first restaurant, Salambaw of Manilla, in Pensacola, FL in 1976, the same year I was born. I actually celebrated my first birthday in a van out back of the restaurant.
My father(front)while a cook in the Navy
Extending his craft, my father bought trailers and trucks, doing any and every festival he could while barely getting sleep. He brought me into his operations at the age of 5, helping setup, clean, and assisting in serving food to our customers.
My mother would stay up all night, prepping the foods for the weekend shows and making sure her kids had packed clothes to hit the road hours away from home to serve up the food. We loved the hard work. It also brought us closer together and created many memories we smile and laugh about today.
My mother(stripes) was always running the show with my father
The long road trips to our weekend shows were spent sitting and sleeping on top of chest type freezers, having picnics at the roadside rest areas along the interstates, and making jokes on each other. During the summer, we didn’t have much ventilation in the back of the trucks, so we were hot and sweaty before we ever started setting up upon arrival.
Taking a lunch break on the way to a show 1981
My father raised me with no other options but to know hard work ethics. All throughout my years of growing up through grade school, most weekends were always spent working out of town somewhere. He had us driving trucks and backing trailers into spots at festivals at 13 years old.
My mother taught me how to properly count back change to our customers. My father, being in the military, had no mercy on us boys. We did all the heavy lifting, all the running back and forth from freezers and fridge bringing goods back to the trailers for cooking, and taking out the trash.
By the time we were 14, dad was sending me and my brothers all the way up to Illinois from Florida to handle his festivals. We had no choice but to learn the operations, be brave, and work hard. After all, this was how our family paid the bills, put food on the table, and survived.
I can honestly say, we’ve met so many amazing people along the way.
John Schneider(Dukes of Hazard) at our festival 1978. That’s me(1yr), being held by my mother(middle)
We love to take all these memories and experiences and bundle it up into our operations today. I look back to when I was a kid, and realize that we all have God given paths in life. We are put through ups and downs to mold us into individuals strong enough to take on life challenges so we can ultimately live the good life.
Flip-n-Yaki exists so we can bring to life what we’ve become in this journey so your life can have more smiles, laughs, and memories along the way.
All the Best,
Tony Banawa – Owner
Flip-n-Yaki
The Garden at Palafox + Main
501 South Palafox Street
Pensacola, FL., 32502