Living a dream

I learned many years ago that when it comes to love and career, following your heart isn’t such a bad idea. And that you’re actually using your head when you’re following your heart.

When you love what you’re doing, you give it your best. And doing what you love draws out the best in you, too.

Antonio “Tony Boy” Escalante finished dentistry, then worked for eight years as a flight attendant for Philippine Airlines. Then he discovered his second true love (the first is his wife, Agnes): cooking.

So he studied to be a chef in Australia. One day, during a visit to a garden restaurant in Tagaytay, a dream took root in his heart. He wanted to put up a place where the food was as heavenly as the setting, where he would be inspired to cook — as well as to relax after he doffed his toque.

Armed with a dream and a loan from his mother, Tony Boy scoured Tagaytay for property on which to nourish his dream. All he could afford at the time was 1.3 hectares of land in the woods of Barangay Neogan, which was inaccessible, except through a dirt road, and which had no electricity. It had no view of Tagaytay’s number one attraction: the volcano on the lake. A coffee plantation, it didn’t look very charming either.

But dreamers are visualizers. Tony Boy saw his dream taking shape amidst the dirt roads and the coffee plants. He was going to create his own view.

Today, his dream is a three-hectare piece of heaven on earth, frequented by heads of states, diplomats, families, couples, tourists — photographed not just for glossy food magazines but for architectural bibles as well.

And the view? All you have to do is turn your head and the view will be breathtaking.

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Tony Boy says the reason his place has so many sitting and lounging areas indoors and outdoors is that people never really eat and run. “They linger well after lunch,” says Tony Boy, who is married to the former Agnes Hechanova of Iloilo City. Since Antonio’s opened in November 2002, it has become one of Tagaytay’s — if not the Philippines’ — main attractions. The dirt roads are now paved, and electricity has come to the barangay. It is a favorite destination of visiting heads of state as well as courting couples.

“No advertisements, just word of mouth,” says Tony Boy, who once worked as a chef at the Tivoli of the Mandarin Oriental. The staff is strict with reservations, and Tony Boy abhors the palakasan system, people who name drop just to be able to get a table. In his eyes, everyone is equal.

He has also opened a grill and a breakfast place along the main road. At the original Antonio’s alone, Tony Boy already employs some 60 people. To make his bottled jams, preserves and salad dressings, he hires women in the area who need part-time jobs.

Born and raised in Negros Occidental, Tony Boy is a charmer. Honed also by his years with PAL, he makes it a point to personally welcome as many guests as he can and give them the VIP treatment.

Being nice to everyone has its own rewards. He remembers how, when he was applying for a bank loan, he was personally welcomed by the bank president and chairman — two people he didn’t know from Adam and Eve but whom he had taken good care of during their visit to his restaurant. To this day, he has yet to pick up the tab whenever he is in a restaurant in Metro Manila. Always, there is someone in the room whose name he may not know but who has been treated like a king/queen at Antonio’s and now see the opportunity to say “Thank you” to him.

Tony Boy also makes sure that by dawn, there are no more guests, especially rowdy teenage guests, at Antonio’s, even if he has to wave them off himself in his pajamas.

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Because guests like to linger at Antonio’s, Tony Boy has opened an area that he calls the lanai. It’s like a side dish to the main course, but even if it’s all your having, you’re going to leave the place satiated.

An enclosed garden within a garden, it has two wooden pavilions, one of which houses a well stocked bar. There is a huge rubber tree in the middle of the lanai, from which hang white chandeliers. Several garden sets circle the lanai and on its stone center tables are built-in basins, which are filled to the brim with ice cubes when you’re having champagne or white wine.

Or you can try any of Antonio’s cocktails, a favorite of which has vodka and arugula (grown at an adjacent farm) called “Arugula lemon drop.”

“This is a place where guests can have cocktails before dinner and after-dinner drinks,” says Tony Boy, who actually enjoys chilling out in the lanai himself.

Tony Boy is one of PeopleAsia magazine’s “Men Who Matter” for 2014. “We’re known for the quality of our ingredients, the preparation techniques, the dishes we create and the memories you create when you come and visit,” he says happily.

He likes making people’s dreams come true in a place where his own dream unfolds every day. (You may e-mail me at [email protected].)