How does one bid goodbye to an icon?

MANILA, Philippines - “Perhaps it’s not until after Tin Hau closes that we will feel the reality of the hotel’s closure,” remarked our general manager Torsten van Dullemen in a casual conversation with us in the Exco team, some weeks after Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group announced in early June the closure of Mandarin Oriental, Manila later in the year.

We had laid out a blazing plan for a staggered closure of the outlets and a resplendent exit leading to the Sept. 9 closure, as was announced weeks later. 

One at a time, added Van Dullemen, “to give the restaurants and bars the attention and dignity each outlet deserves, and provide the opportunity for both our customers to graciously bid goodbye to those who have served them well and our restaurant staff and chefs to say thanks and farewell to those whom they have served through many years.” 

Thus, MeMOries: Best of the Best came to life.

Closing down a revered 38-year- old establishment is bittersweet, especially as it comes with the anticipation of a new luxury 275-room Mandarin Oriental hotel opening in 2020 also in Makati. Age has taken its toll on the property that opened in 1976 as the city’s pre-eminent hotel, and its infrastructure and existing facilities are no longer in keeping with the Group’s well-recognized luxury hospitality.

My colleagues and I would soon discover that nostalgia over the looming loss of a much-loved icon instantaneously swept the social media. Netizens professing to be “forever a fan” posted stirring sentiments and recollections of their wedding reception, debut, first date, etc. being held at the hotel and, for some, of the time they lived in the hotel. Loyal guests and media heralded “the end of an era.”

As for me, the hotel has been my work place for 22 years, though it always felt like it had only been 10 years. Securing the golden fan pin on my lapel at the start of the day has become an instinctive ritual, almost like a declaration that I am ready to face the world. Like the 400-plus of us, I have worn the pin with the highest respect for the brand and with the utmost pride.

Last Friday, the fourth in our Best of the Best series unfolded at the Mandarin Deli, yet again before a full house of wine enthusiasts at the grand finale of the monthly Wines and Tapas Night where some 30 exquisite wines from the hotel’s wine cellar and the best tapas were served. Today is the Mandarin Deli’s last day, offering its fans a last chance to also relish executive pastry chef Darren Harding’s take on the Deli’s signature cakes of the past, like the classic L’Hirondelle cake.

Along with the MO Lounge, Paseo Uno remains as the last one standing until it serves its final dinner on Sept. 8. Every night starting tomorrow, Aug. 18 until Sept. 5, our all-day dining restaurant’s Best of the Best irresistible treat will offer a Luxury Buffet for the price of the regular dinner buffet, inclusive of free-flow white wine and select beverages.

Tin Hau, the first restaurant to close on July 13, featured executive Chinese chef Hann Furn Chen’s best specialties and the much-sought after geomancer Joseph Chau one last time, as the hotel’s closure also meant the end of the long-running annual Chinese New Year’s Eve celebrations.

At The Tivoli, the best of yesteryears’ specialties recreated by Tivoli executive sous chef Remi Vercelli, plus the two unparalleled dinners with guest chefs Norbert Gandler (the hotel’s former award-winning executive chef) and Margarita Fores whose transcendence in Italian cuisine was complemented by executive chef Rene Ottlik’s mastery of European cooking, filled up the restaurant at lunch and dinner daily until the fine dining restaurant closed on July 25.

Martinis’ last hurrah with the bar habitués and partyphiles was an unforgettable SRO party, as some of the bar’s popular bands and deejays performed for the last time, just a few nights before it quietly closed on Aug. 3.

Amid the outpouring of affection and nostalgia in what some have termed as one of the longest goodbyes ever, I recall significant vignettes. That the hotel was the first to be elevated to the Hall of Fame in 1997 in the Department of Tourism’s Kalakbay Awards for winning Hotel of the Year three times. That it was six-time champion in the Chefs on Parade culinary olympics, affirming already then as now its culinary supremacy. Or that it reigned as a businessman’s hotel with recognitions such as Best Business Hotel, Top 20 Business Hotels in Asia, Top City Hotel, etc. by renowned international financial and travel magazines.

Neither will I forget the glittering cultural events that practically earned for the hotel the moniker “the cultural center of Makati”; the glorious times in Tivoli with visiting Michelin-starred chefs, the colorful Filipino heritage and regional culinary and cultural events that were staged with culture and food historians and renowned Filipino chefs. 

And of course, there’s the much-heralded feng shui-oriented Chinese New Year midnight festivities that became a landmark event.

My  epic journey with Mandarin Oriental, Manila is  made memorable by general managers whose awesome support have helped me and my remarkable team in big measure to accomplish what’s at hand, by colleagues whose unqualified dedication have produced the best service and offerings this city will long remember.

But above all these, I am touched by the incomparable warmth and dedication of current colleagues and those of the past who, through the years, still get together regularly. I am humbled in seeing that, despite the latent fear of what the future holds post-Mandarin, each colleague lives up to the role that he or she has played or has been expected to deliver, until the very last day.

If the Best of the Best series has provided our guests an occasion to capture the essence of Mandarin Oriental, Manila one last time and be caught in its embrace in its last remaining weeks, the grit and affection for the hotel held by my colleagues surmount any anxieties, as they give their all one more time with every passing day until the finale, when it’s time to let go. 

To a much loved icon, we bid goodbye with great aplomb and deep gratitude.