California's Cheese Steak Shop opens restaurant in Makati City

California-based sandwich restaurant Cheese Steak Shop opened its first store outside of the United States, setting up a shop in Makati City.   “It is our 30th shop in our thirty years of service,” said Steven Oakes, president of the Cheese Steak Franchise Corp.   According to the local franchisee, two to three more stores in Metro Manila will be opened next year, including one in Greenhills, San Juan City.   “These will be all company-owned stores but were also open to local franchising. In fact, when we opened our first store last Monday, we’ve already 5 to 6 queries,” Filipino franchisee Margaret Uy said.   "Aside from the Philippines, we've set our sights on opening stores in Germany and England. We're looking at the possibility of putting up four or five stores in Germany by the third quarter of 2012," Oakes revealed.   Oakes said the sandwich restaurant chain sells about 5,000 cheese steak sandwiches per store per month or about 2 million sandwiches for all stores in a year.   The restaurant network began with one store in San Francisco in 1982. It serves the Philadelphia-style cheese-and-steak sandwiches along with assorted salads, vegetarian sandwiches, and fries. — ELR/VS, GMA News