Food That Feeds The Soul

ABBA NAPA grew up wanting to be a spy, but her love for food and her enjoyment of hospitality led her to co-founding The Moment Group, one of the biggest proprietors in the local food and beverage scene

- Sara Siguion-Reyna

“As a restaurateur, there is such an enormous high I get from our turning an empty space into something people would want to go to and spend their time in and celebrate with friends and family at,” says Abba Napa. The Co-Founder and Creative Director of The Moment Group, who has overseen the rise of concepts like Manam, Mecha Uma, Ooma, and Mo Cookies, says the most exciting part of being in the food business is developing the restaurants and their menu, along with branding and design.

Born to a family of restaurateurs, Abba saw how hard and time consuming it was and initially wanted no part of it. “I actually wanted to be a secret spy and chase bad guys in a Maserati around Eastern Europe, or be an astronaut,” she shares, with a twinkle in her eye. Nevertheless, she first caught the bug for the industry when, as she began striking out as an entrepreneur, her father supported her by letting her eat her workweek meals at his restaurants, without charge. “Every day I’d come in for a free lunch and savor it. Over time, I found myself coming in after work as well and staying for dinner service,” she says, “not so much because I wanted a free dinner, but because I couldn’t stay away from the thrill of a buzzy dining room. It was like a drug.” Chef Moreno, the chef of that restaurant is the person Abba credits with teaching her to value what to put on a plate.

Abba places this value over trends when it comes to thinking about food. “Today, honestly, I’m the worst at looking out for trends, I suppose because I don’t want to get influenced by them,” she says, “whatever innovations are going to be in vogue around the corner, I hope they will be predicated on the premise of adding value to the dining scene and that everyone in the industry gets to benefit from them.”