Asper BComm alum Jackie Wild tells her cultural and family story through food at Tito Boy Restaurant
When Jackie Wild [BComm (hons.)/24] took her first Asper School of Business course in 2018, she was a scrappy hard-worker who already had a nearly decade-long career in the communications industry.
When she took her last, she was a notable Manitoban entrepreneur, President of the Manitoba Filipino Business Council (MFBC), Vice Chair of the Mabuhay District (MD) and the mother of two kids.
Well, actually, three if you count the restaurant she opened.
The first spot in Winnipeg’s south end to get Philippine cuisine, Wild’s restaurant Tito Boy, is, of course, a place to eat. But it’s also a rich, multiple-course story of culture, family, and entrepreneurship, told through everything from the décor to the dishes themselves.
As Jackie, a creative at heart (her initial dream was to become a film editor) was in the midst of her public relations career, she began taking a course here and there at the Asper School, interested in entrepreneurship.
“I always knew I was going to open a business. I just never knew what that business idea was going to be,” she says.
The creative side of her knew there was a cultural story she had to tell through that business, but there’s multiple levels to a business beyond storytelling that are easy to miss from the outside. Finances. Management skills. Human relations.
Effectively, without the key lessons of a BComm degree in her back pocket, she had no pen and paper to write her story.
Attending the Asper School allowed her to see how the story could translate into what Tito Boy is today: a day-to-day, financially stable family business that appeals to the community.
“I like thinking about the big picture,” Wild says. “But getting down to the nitty gritty of figuring out how to do accounting and finance was really helpful as we embarked on this journey, because I would have never known even where to start.”
The titular Tito Boy is Jackie’s Father, Agustin “Tito Boy” Doming, who worked for over a decade as a health care aide while keeping a dream alive of one day opening a Philippine restaurant.
Wild says that for most first-generation Philippine immigrants, bringing their families over is enough of a risk. Taking a major career risk, like opening a restaurant, would’ve been an uncommon path. “It’s common for our kababayan (fellow country people) to work stable jobs in stable industries.”
Jackie set out to start a new chapter in that narrative, with herself as the owner, and her father as the head chef.
Weaved throughout all of Asper’s lessons is the importance of connecting to community. And fostering a rich community around this uniquely Philippine-Manitoban story has been very important for Wild.
Even as she continues to foster local Philippine-owned business prosperity in her role as President of the MFBC, Tito Boy’s is her way of showing up at the ground level for the community.
As soon as you walk into Tito Boy, you can instantly feel the community connection. Right next to the door, you’ll find a shelf with items from various small Philippine-Manitoban businesses available for purchase. Making these kind of connections with other business owners in her community, Wild says, “are just good karma.”
But really, everyone who visits Tito Boy is a connection, rather than a customer.
“I’ve always said that our success is rooted not in whether we're open for a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, a lifetime,” she says. “The more important question is - were we able to convey a story and touch enough people to change hearts and minds, and get them excited about what it means to be Philippine-Manitoban?”
“I think we’ve been able to do that.” Wild says. “It’s been fun.”
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