Dining out and paying it forward

KInd-hearted: Steven Aroki and his friend Joanne Oo taking a welfie at Charlie

Customers at a cafe spread the love through vouchers for meals for orphans, drug rehabilitation patients, refugees and the homeless.

FIFTEEN days before Christmas, Steven Aroki bought several “Pay It Forward” vouchers in Charlie’s Cafe at Taman Bukit Desa, Kuala Lumpur.

He pinned the vouchers - worth RM15 each - on the “Pay It Forward” wall in the cafe. The money raised will go to a Special Christmas dinner for 80 refugee children from Myanmar on Dec 22.

“In the spirit of Christmas, I wanted to do something nice for the refugees. It is not often these kids get to out and eat good food in a cafe,” said Steven, who had the award-winning dishes - chicken chop and cheesecake - for lunch.

The 40-something general manager also bought several vouchers on behalf of his Barang Naik WhatsApp group member, Nick Liew of Penang.

Introducing Charlie’s Cafe, an enterprise with a heart.

Desonny Tuzan, a 41-year-old Sabahan, runs the cafe together with his 35-year-old Sabahan wife Debra Leong, who does the baking. It was opened on May 19, this year with the intention of starting an enterprise that can impact communities, especially the indigenous people.

“We wanted to make a difference!” said Desonny.

One way was through “Pay It Forward”, a concept Desonny, who has 20 years experience in the food and beverage industry, wanted to try.

“The inspiration came from a viral video on Facebook which we saw a while ago,” he said.

The response from the public to the “Pay It Forward” campaign has been overwhelming. “We had people all the way from Singapore asking about it,” he said.

With money raised from the campaign, Desonny has invited orphaned kids, drug rehabilitation patients, and refugee children to dine in Charlie’s Cafe.

One of the organisations it works with is Rotary Club Subang, which handles the logistics. “We hope to work closely with more NGOs,” he said.

It also plans to employ and train indigenous people so that they can eventually own their own business under the Charlie’s Cafe brand.

Another way Charlie’s Cafe helps the indigenous people is by buying supplies from orang asli communities. This month the cafe sold raw honey sourced from the orang asli in Pahang. In January, it plans to buy vegetables from them.

“The idea is for this community do business without going through the middleman,” said Desonny.

The love that Charlie’s Cafe is spreading has even affected a customer. He brought a homeless Sabahan he had met in Central Market in Kuala Lumpur for lunch at the cafe.

Desonny was shocked as he had not expected that people would bring the homeless to his cafe for food. “I offered him nasi lemak but he declined and only asked for rice and fried chicken,” he said, adding that he hoped more would bring homeless people to the cafe.

Dishes – cheesecake, tom yam, nasi lemak, laksa (specifically its Sarawak laksa), curry mee and chicken chop – from the six-month-old cafe have been voted as the best in Kuala Lumpur by the readers of FoodAdvisor.my, a start-up website that wants to empower Malaysians to discover the best recommended food and beverages according to dish and location.

“After over six months in operation we never expected to be even listed!” said Desonny.

And the secret to his award-winning dishes is ....

“The secret is in understanding the tastebuds of your target market. Getting good quality ingredients and suppliers are also as important. Passion and having the spirit of excellence,” he said.

The other secret to its delicious food is the people behind the scenes.

“My wife Debra bakes the famous musang king cheesecakes, scones and butter cakes.

“She only started by baking at home but through the years she understood the public’s tastebuds, especially when we were running a cafe in Damansara Utama Methodist Church for three years,” he said.

The cafe operation is a family affair. Desonny and Debra are helped by their children – Ezekiel, 13, Althea, 10, Sofea, six, and Daniella, a 19-month-old.

“Daniella entertains the customers with her cuteness,” he said.

Desonny’s vision for Charlie’s Cafe is for it to “grow to hundreds of outlets in Malaysia” as he wants to serve “awesome Malaysian food”.

“We want outlets where Malaysians from all walk of life can sit down and share a meal together with friends and families, just like in east Malaysia,” he said.

If Charlie’s Cafe continues to be “nice”, his Santa Claus might make his Christmas wish come true.