At the heart of Paper Moon in Manila is a long friendship

I never thought I’d find such a compatible person in my life,” says Edi Tekeli, the man who brought fashion brand Mango to Manila in 1999 and Guess in the 1980s. “We eat the best food together, we both love photography — we just each bought a 50-megapixel camera — we go shopping and ride our Vespas together.”

Thrice married and currently single, Tekeli is not talking about a woman but his best friend, Ambassador Joey Antonio, Century Properties chairman, his fellow gourmand and now partner in the new Paper Moon Italian restaurant located at the rooftop of Knightsbridge Residences in Makati.

Paper Moon restaurant (not to be confused with the local bakery café with the same name in malls) was first founded by Pio Galligani and his wife Enrica del Rosso in Milan. It became a landmark in the local dining scene quickly and has since expanded to cities such as Istanbul, Doha and now Manila.

A Turkish national who grew up in Istanbul and Milan, Tekeli likes to say that Manila is his true home and he is “more Filipino than you. I’ve been out of Turkey for 47 years, 37 of those were spent living in the Philippines,” but actually he spent nine years in the US between his first and second acts in Manila when he opened the Mango business in Chicago, LA and Boston.

Tekeli first left Turkey when he was 17 and studying at the Catholic school Don Bosco in Istanbul when he fell in love with an Italian girl. He told his parents he was going to Milan and, without any money, followed her.

He spent 10 years in Italy, the first years working three jobs every day, one of which proved to be his ticket to success. “It was the furniture business. Somebody took my hand as a young man, a big Turkish company, and we were furnishing the house of the richest man in Istanbul, the Koc family. I was dong purchasing in North Italy where all the furniture makers are.”

Then he met and fell in love with a Filipina who was walking the Milan runways for Fashion Week. Twenty days later, they got married, and thus he left Italy and began his life in the Philippines.

Antonio and Tekeli first met in the 1990s when the latter bought a unit at Century Properties’ Essensa residential condominium. Tekeli had become the “garments king” in Manila by then, having been a buying agent for American companies such as JC Penney, and the two men found themselves moving in the same social circle and striking a deep friendship.

“He’s like a brother, we have the best friendship,” he says of Antonio. “How nice to have a true, true friend like that.”

When Tekeli decided to move back to Manila after nine years in LA, he felt that he had no place in the fashion business anymore with new brands and malls having joined the market when he was away.

In LA, he was a frequent customer of Wolfgang Puck’s Spago restaurant and talked to him over lunch with their common friend, the lawyer Bob Shapiro, about bringing the restaurant to Manila. “He said, ‘The Philippines? Forget about it.’ Bastos. I felt very offended.”

Then he flew to Istanbul and went to his favorite restaurant, which was Paper Moon, located at Akmerkez mall in the trendy and posh Etilier neighborhood.

“I flew to Milan to talk to the owners and we clicked immediately. I said, ‘If you don’t get involved in the construction and don’t tell me what to do with the pricing, I’m willing to work with you.’ But then I thought I don’t think I will be excited only for the Philippines, I have to have the license for Asia.”

Last week, on Tekeli’s 65th birthday, Paper Moon opened in a beautiful, warm, 629-sqm. space on the rooftop of Knightsbridge Residences. Sixty-five floors from the ground, the whole restaurant has fantastic views of Makati, Mandaluyong, BGC and neighboring cities. The interiors have a more upscale feel than the original Milan restaurant.

Ambassador Antonio says, “In capital cities around the world, rooftop restaurants and bars are huge successes as the views are stunning. My going into the restaurant business was accidental; it was only when Edi was looking for a place to put it up that I suggested the rooftop of Knightsbridge. What sealed my interest was Paper Moon is my favorite Italian restaurant in Milan. I love authentic Italian food. Now, Manila is fortunate to have one of the best Italian restaurants right here.”

Paper Moon Manila offers the same Milano specialties as the original restaurant such as ossobuco or braised veal shank with saffron risotto; costoletta di vitello or breaded veal chop with rocket and cherry tomato salad; and a broader Italian selection such as six kinds of homemade pasta, chicken roll-up with mozzarella, spinach and mushroom sauce, carved beef steak with porcini mushroom. Of course, there are pizzas, including Pizza Edi, which is topped with tomato, mozzarella, beef pepperoni, onion and fresh chili pepper. The Papardelle Paper Moon with pink sauce and crispy bacon is also fantastic, and for a summer appetizer, the prosciutto with melon hits the right amount of saltiness and sweetness. Paper Moon also serves house wine from the Chianti region apart from Italian labels.

It’s Antonio and Tekeli’s first food venture and, by God, they’ve just started!

Antonio says, “Another restaurant that will do well in Manila is a good quality steakhouse. One with consistent quality coupled with a good dining experience will altogether help make Manila an interesting dining destination both for locals and visitors.” The steakhouse, a franchise from the US, will be located at Trump Tower. 

For their Paper Moon venture, last Friday (only two days after they opened Manila), Antonio, his wife Hilda and Tekeli flew to Hong Kong to sign deals for two Hong Kong locations, one of which is in a new building in Harbour City. After a second branch in Manila — they are building one at Antonio’s Asian Century Center (where the BMW showroom is located) in BGC — they are looking at Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia.

But, of course, these two businessmen must find time for their bromance. “We always run always from Hilda and go shopping together,” says Tekeli with a laugh.

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Paper Moon Italian restaurant is located at the rooftop of Knightsbridge Residences, Century City, Makati.

For inquiries and reservation, call 793-8630, email info@papermoon.ph.

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Check out the author’s travel blog at www.findingmyway.net. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @iamtanyalara.