Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
At the height of the pandemic, most of the stories people read and heard were of deaths and how health professionals also succumbed to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It was more of doom than boom.
Fortunately, there were a few good stories that came out of it, too. One such case is the Mixed Temptation Chinese Restaurant, one of the most popular eateries in Davao City. During the recent Chinese New Year celebration, the fourth branch was opened in Matina.
“By God’s grace and your total support, we have opened this restaurant for people who live near this place,” said owner Rogelio Canales during the launching which was attended by prominent personalities of the city, media, and vloggers.
Canales opened its first branch in the not-so-busy area in Ponciano Reyes Street in 2018. What he offered to his customers at that time were mostly drinks. That’s why he called it Mixed Temptations Mobile Bar Davao.
When it became popular, he built a small bar replica. He brought it and the drinks in the places where events were held. Its catch phrase was: “Tell me where the party is and we will bring the bar.”
It was an instant hit. The mobile bar was going to various places in Davao Region and even in North Cotabato. It graced such events as birthdays, weddings, reunions, conventions, meetings, and other parties.
Pandemic shift
Then, the pandemic hit the country in March 2020. There were no parties. People stayed at home. The business went into hiatus. The idea of moving from serving drinks to offering food came into fruition. “I shifted to a restaurant because of the pandemic,” he recalled. “The government banned alcoholic beverages.”
A hotel and restaurant management graduate, Canales knew how to cook Chinese foods. After all, he once worked in one of the top hotels in Davao.
To make people aware of the restaurant’s existence, he started calling those people, whom he encountered during his hotelier days, who liked Chinese food. One by one, they ordered. He personally delivered the food. Through word of mouth from these customers, more people came to know of the existence of his restaurant. “It was a dream come true,” he said of the restaurant.
In addition, he didn’t want his people to lose their jobs. So, he contacted a chef who could help him realize his idea. On why he focused on Chinese foods, he replied, “Chinese foods are my personal favorite.”
Best Chinese in town
Mixed Temptation Chinese Restaurant offers a lot of Chinese food on its menu. Among the top five best-selling Chinese foods during the time of pandemic were: Peking duck, Hainanese chicken, patatim, dimsum and homemade tofu.
His customers were satisfied, and were enamored with the food offerings. “I’ve been to the Mixed Temptation Chinese Restaurant several times since the pandemic, and tried almost all of them. Everything on the menu just tastes good,” said one customer.
Another hailed: “The customer service is excellent, and their food is also good, and all the prices are affordable. It surely is a must-visit restaurant when you are in Davao and looking for good food.”
The Chinese foods were so popular that even before the pandemic was over, he was able to open a branch in Lanang. Now, he named it: Mixed Temptation Chinese Restaurant. “We still serve drinks, too,” he said.
But that’s going ahead of the story.
Multiple branches
Arturo Uy, a former governor of Davao de Oro, was among his regular customers in the Ponciano branch. The politician liked Chinese food very much. “Not only that,” he said, “we don’t [have to] wait longer [for us to be served] compared to other restaurants. The way Budoy manages the restaurant is very efficient.”
Budoy is the nickname of Canales. So, one time, Uy made a proposal which he couldn’t refuse. The two would collaborate in opening a bigger and more convenient restaurant. And that was how the Lanang branch first came into existence.
As more customers flocked to the restaurant, he decided to open the bar again, this time in both branches. He also brings the mobile bar to different places in Davao Region.
When customers continued to come to the Lanang branch, Canales and Uy decided to open up the place adjacent to the restaurant, where he also added a big aquarium where people could see live fish and crabs. Customers can choose from the live seafood, and specify how it would be prepared. Fresh seafood, direct to their tables!
The second branch has been turned into a restaurant-cum-bar, where at one area people could listen to music while eating and drinking, while the adjacent area was devoted for straight dining (although people could also order their alcoholic beverages here).
According to Canales, the main branch’s strength has always been its “take-out” orders, as 80% of the sales comes from it.
During the launching of the Matina branch, Canales presented new dishes like Yu sheng, Shanghai fried rice, chopped local duck with plum sauce, beef tenderloin with Xo sauce, tendon with sea cucumber, slow cooked pompano with crispy beans, and bird nest’s soup.
Bartender turned restaurateur
The probinsyano from Bukidnon has come a long, long way, indeed. After graduating from a two-year-course in hotel and restaurant management, he decided to go back to the country’s biggest city to work. Fortunately, he was hired by the Marco Polo Hotel, where he had his on-the-job training.
This was in 2006. He was employed as an on-call waiter at the hotel’s banquet bar. It was here that he learned about the nitty-gritty of bartending. He worked so hard that the management took notice of him, and appointed him at the bars, and as an event trainer at the Lotus Court.
“I really [had] no idea about bartending; what I [knew then was] only about waitering,” Canales recalled. “When I was transferred to Lotus Court, it was there that I learned how to brew tea, coffee and fruit juices. If our guests ordered cocktails, we went to the lobby lounge or Eagles Bar.
“The reason was that we were not allowed to mix cocktails. Aside from that, we didn’t know how, and we didn’t have the ingredients,” he went on. “When the Lotus Court was renovated, the staff were distributed to other outlets and I was assigned to the Pool Bar.”
Canales was scared of the new development. “I was afraid because I don’t have any knowledge about cocktails, mocktails, spirits and wine,” he admitted.
But what really frightened him the most was having conversation with foreign guests and visitors. “The Pool Bar is the hangout place for guests from other countries,” he said. “At that time, all I knew was to answer yes or no.”
Instead of being terrified, he decided to learn the basics of bartending. “I forced myself to study, research and attend seminars. I also asked for some techniques in the preparation of basic mixed drinks, spirits and wine, from the legends and masters in the bartending industry,” he said.
As he learned more about bartending, Canales also gained some confidence in talking with the guests. Later on, “I fell in love with what I was doing. In fact, I enjoy doing it.”
Looking back, he admitted: “Along the way, I learned about the ways and means of the bartending industry. But most importantly, I developed my self-esteem and confidence. If in the past I had only two English words, I am now able to converse with foreigners, although not really fluently, but enough to talk with them and understand what they are telling me.”
But it was when Canales was assigned to the hotel’s Chinese Restaurant as officer-in-charge that he learned about Chinese cuisine and even knew how to cook some of the mouth-watering dishes.
On why he thinks his restaurants and mobile bars have become successful, Canales replied, “I believe if you follow your passion and dream, everything will happen in the right time,” he pointed out. – ###
