When I announced on Facebook that “I broke off from the Restaurant business”, my SENSE sister Ellen Salvador Jennings asked a question many of my readers would ask:
Many congratulated me and expressed their best wishes for my decision. Thank you my Friends!
Now, I have time to reflect on my experiences in the restaurant industry.
(Note to myREADERS: I might sound bragging in this article, but I don’t intend to. I’m simply telling my story.)
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I definitely became a better cook. My recipe had grown quite a bit. I can cook anything and turn it into a gourmet meal. I always tease my friends:
“Show me your refrigerator and pantry and I can make you and your family a special dinner.”
That’s what I do when I visit my grownup children. I look for whatever is in their fridge and pantry and cook for them a unique recipe they never had before, and they love it. Thanks to the experiences brought by almost ten years of professional cooking.
I cooked and served food to people from all walks of life, from the homeless passing by my restaurant to the CEOs of a big corporate offices around Chicagoland, and many others in between.
I did weddings no other restaurants can do. I was the caterer and the pastor who officiated the weddings – a one-of-a-kind package deal!
My social circle had greatly expanded. I was introduced to various social clubs many of which are Filipino/American organizations. I was invited not only to cater food to their events but also to speak, sing and pray. In the process I forged special friendships and developed acquaintances. I consider this as one of the best gain I had for being in the restaurant industry.
I’ve introduced Filipino food to the mainline market. Mabuhay is the only Filipino restaurant in the Chicagoland that regularly caters to big corporate offices which include the United Airlines, BMO Harris Bank, DHL, Kellogg School of Business, the Northshore Hospitals, Walgreens, and many more. Filipino food is being served to a wider customer base and I’ve seen how it is liked and appreciated. (Read the note below to learn how the corporate catering works.)*The new owners of Mabuhay inherited these accounts and so is the privilege of breaking through mainline market.
My interpersonal skills were tested and challenged as I met the best and the worst people: customers, competitors, employees, suppliers,vendors and telemarketers. In the process, I learned how to deal with people of various backgrounds and differing temperaments. I quickly learned how to discern motives and how to deal with them squarely in a Christian manner.
I had supporters and admirers as well as opponents, bashers and critiques. I dealt with a lot of people who run their businesses dishonestly. I’d been shortchanged and taken advantaged of. I quickly learned the “How Not To” run a business so I could maintain my integrity as a Christian.
But my loyal customers (there are many of them) brought me a lot of encouragements and inspiration. They dined regularly, ordered food for take out, ordered catering foods for their family and office events, came to my special events and best of all, they endorsed my restaurant. Many of them became my friends and readers of this blog.
The hardest part of leaving the restaurant had something to do with my church. For almost four years, Mabuhay Restaurant was the home of my church congregation Lord of the Nations. We met there every Sunday afternoon. The restaurant converts to a church at 4 o’clock on Sunday afternoons. In one corner of the dining area, I built a small stage that served as my pulpit where I stood and preached. 
After church, during the fellowship, the congregation would feast on the buffet food. Once I heard a church member blurted. “When you attend this church you are served two kinds of food; spiritual food and physical food, and there’s no reason for you to go home hungry.”
I’ve been known as the Pastor Chef. Customers would come randomly looking for me asking for prayers and advise. I reserved a corner in the restaurant where I sat with them for prayer and counseling. It was in that corner that I did the pre-marriage counseling for couples that I married. It was there that I cried and prayed with people who were experiencing desperate situations. That restaurant was a holy place where God was worshipped and praised, where good words and blessings were uttered and where we felt God’s sweet presence.
I will share you more of my experiences as I remember them. For now, I’m enjoying my time minus the great responsibilities of Restaurant entrepreneurship.
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*(A company called Fooda does the marketing for Mabuhay and other selected restaurants. They look for big corporate offices/buildings with at least 500 employees. Fooda also signs up their “restaurant partners” who will bring/deliver lunches to these offices. There are hundreds of offices in Chicagoland that are being catered by hundreds of Fooda Restaurant partners in a given workday, and Mabuhay is one of those. Our customers are the employees of that given office building. Mabuhay has two catering teams serving more than 100 meals a day.)
myJOURNEY 