Meet Emilio Ocampo, The Man Serving Manila’s Latest New York Style Pizzas

(SPOT.ph) When most of us think of New York, we might envision Broadway, the Met Gala, or Fashion Week; snippets of scenes from Friends and Sex and the City; seats at Radio City or Madison Square Garden; essentially, sparkly vignettes of a concrete jungle far, far away. But it would be unfair to reduce any place only to its most glittery and glamorous moments as it would be to only associate it with Pizza Rat and Rikers.

The well-known pocket of the northeastern United States, like Metro Manila, is often viewed as a destination where one might go to make their fortune, rather than a hub of personal journeys. As someone whose childhood is so heavily rooted in both places, 25-year old Emilio Ocampo has his own Big Apple story, and now we're about to hear it from the lens of Jabroni’s, a New-York style pizzeria currently selling online and set to open in Rockwell this summer.

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Meet Emilio Ocampo of Jabroni's:

Jabroni, noun; there are many, many definitions on offer (with no shortage on Urban Dictionary), but they all pretty much boil down to jackass or idiot. It's a term Ocampo and his friends use almost affectionately, stemming not only from their time in the tri-state area, but also—maybe even mostly—because Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is known to throw it around. “We’re pretty equal parts serious and goofy about the venture,” he says, “but at the end of it, we know what we like and how we want to see it reflected in the menu.” At the moment, said menu can be perused and ordered from on Tablevibe.

The food-in-movies fanatics may think Big Night (1996, not 2021) but Jabroni’s deliberately leans more towards Home Alone 2 and Ninja Turtles. “A lot of research and careful development went into this, and still goes into this, but at the heart of it is the pizza I knew from my childhood… a lot of which was admittedly spent in NYC,” explains Ocampo.

He welcomes us to his family’s new home, dressed in his own restaurant’s merch and a pair of New York Knicks Crocs; even his phone has a Knicks case. We were obviously sitting down with a young man who could probably map out SoHo or Flatbush in his mind if you gave him a minute, and so our initial question of “What was your idea of pizza growing up?” was tossed out shortly after making introductions. 

Where most of us might understand (perhaps on some unspoken, visceral level) the pipeline from bad cafeteria approximations to actual brick-oven pizza, Ocampo and his associates simply—maybe inherently—do not. “Blake [Hlatky] really worked with our chef to get every single element [of our pizzas] right, and such that they all work well together,” he says, while the man in question mills about the house in search of a particular box and stops to grant us a polite wave. 

The time spent crafting the Jabroni's recipes is, indeed, all too evident. There’s a baguette sort of quality to the edges of the crust; a gratifying, rough, just-crispy sound to the bottom of every slice, aided by that traditional sprinkling of cornmeal; and the right balance of salt, fat, and acid spread evenly in the sauce and cheese. The result is the satisfying sum of very simple things done well. We personally loved the Vodka Pepperoni (P1,850)—which gets its heat from what we’re assuming is very good vodka—and one of Jabroni’s newest additions, The Popeye (P1,400), ideal even for the veggie-averse.

The overall vibe of their social media is about as close to authentic as these slices (ha!) of New York, you can almost hear the posts telling you to “fuhgeddaboutit” or “get outta heeeeah.” Their Instagram is brim with references on references, without feeling derivative or too much like any sort of caricature. And when asked where it all comes from, Jabroni’s branding expert Anya Limjoco says, “It comes from hanging out with these guys so much. I’ve never seen Goodfellas, I promise.”

Now, there is an elephant in the room—but it’s not a pink, looming one that’s embarrassed to be there. Ocampo is the son of famous creative retailers Ricco and Tina, and sibling to business-savvy sisters—and he credits them for his entrepreneurial spirit. “They let me have my crazy ideas, but they don’t tell me I’m crazy—they ask me what the plan is,” he says. “My parents taught us all to be independent, but also to not be afraid to ask for help, even if it’s just a bit of advice. I think that’s pretty healthy. Like, I know my Dad wanted a caviar pizza and a Caesar salad on my menu, and we did butt heads about that a little bit, but at the end of the day, it’s my concept. I’m not in a place where I would have to defer to him on things like that, and he would never put me or my sisters in that sort of position. And that means a lot to us as his kids.”

Along with his clan and cohorts, Ocampo also gives props to his girlfriend: “I dream [something] up, and she helps me bring it to life,” he says, not skipping a beat. “She brings me to life, really.” 

Ultimately, Emilio Ocampo is a dreamer—a kid at heart and in diet, if anything. (“I am! I eat like a child,” he laughs. “It’s why my Dad and I couldn’t agree about the salad.”) But at the core of these dreams, there is a son looking to apply the lessons his parents taught him; a very friendly face whose careful trust in others seems to pay back in spades; a little brother who cannot speak well enough of his sisters; a New Yorker with Manila roots, for whom the lines of culture are somehow simultaneously sharpened and blurred in various places; and, really, just some jabroni who absolutely loves his pizza.

Photos by Hans Fausto

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