'Wayward' OFW changes ways, now a promising restaurateur in Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – An overseas Filipino who had gone wayward during his teen years, living with a family who adopted him after birth because his real father left his mother during pregnancy, has mended his ways and now counts among this city’s promising Filipino restaurateurs.

A complete turnaround, indeed, for 30-year-old Tomy De Jesus Molina of Makati, who started out as a junior waiter at a café in Deira City Centre and pursued a career path in Dubai’s thriving food and beverage (F&B) industry to become a supervisor and finally run his own.

Having learned the ropes of the trade with nine years logged in as restaurant staff, then manager, Molina opened his dining destination in Rigga just recently, promising to make it at par with the city’s highly competitive F&B business.

“My concept for the restaurant is a cozy, tucked away, dining venue offering high quality food. Rigga is known as a crowded, noisy place with lots of Filipinos, cheap restaurants. So, I thought I’d make my restaurant’s ambiance more relaxing with bamboo plants, yellow warm light, jazz and acoustic music, elegant vibe with food at reasonable prices,” said Molina in a mix of English and the vernacular.

The dining destination, located on a hotel rooftop, also has a pool and sits up to 40 people. He was able to open it with his savings, support from a relative and a friend, Anthony Makavely Noche, a popular hip hop artist who runs a bar just below Molina’s restaurant. 

Noche offered the rooftop place to Molina at a very affordable price, the latter said.

World-class

But what about the food? 

“It’s not cheap and not expensive as I am selling peace and world-class dining experience to my guests. My restaurant is proof that we Filipinos can also compete with high-end dining venues with good food. 

“All the dishes that we serve are traditional Pinoy food but with elevated quality. We use ribeye beef for our dried or cured beef. We don’t use scrap meat for the pares (braised beef stew). We instead use tenderloin beef or belly meat,” said Molina.

Molina, who got his formal training at the Magsaysay Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts (MIHCA) in Makati, also cooks, with steaks and pastas being his specialties.
 
The pricing? A couple out for a chill can have steak and wine for AED69, Molina said. At AED140, it’s an elegant, special date night. The tapares (pares with tapa) can be enjoyed at AED38 with unlimited rice, he said.

Troubled youth

All cleaned up and keeping his head low, his nose clean, Molina had a troublesome youth.

“Namamali na po ng daan. Like wrong circle of friends. Napapahamak and napapasok sa iba’t ibang gulo. Napunta sa punto na puro trouble, gang wars, drugs, kasi mga ganun nakasama ko,” he said of his teenage years.

(I would lose my way and be with the wrong circle of friends. I was in all kinds of unfortunate incidents to the point where there was nothing but trouble, gang wars, drugs because that’s how my friends were.)

Molina said he is forever grateful to his mother’s uncle, a lawyer who adopted and raised him.  

“He treated me like his real son. He and his family gave me all their love. That was the main reason why I decided to go abroad, to repay them,” he said. 

And so, Molina didn’t think twice when his auntie, who was living in Dubai, invited him to the city and shouldered plane ticket and visa expenses. He arrived in August of 2015.

There were learning curves and some difficulties finding a job at first because Molina did not finish college and had no work experience. 

Unfortunately, Molina’s mother’s uncle who adopted him passed away just as he was on his first job as junior waiter. And it was a big blow to him.

Now, himself a father to a four-year-old daughter and married to a Pinay working as an executive secretary at a construction company, Molina said he remains grateful to his mother’s uncle and his family.

“I am also thankful to God who still took me in despite my bad ways in the past,” he said. —KBK, GMA Integrated News