Potato Head only opened its doors in January last year, but it has already become something of a stalwart among Jakarta’s young socialites, executive types and expats.
While the bar/restaurant serves excellent dishes and boasts an extensive cocktail list, it offers something that is a little harder to find in Jakarta — a tasteful yet playful ambience.
And this all makes sense when you meet the two men behind the concept: Ronald Akili and Jason Gunawan, both art collectors and owners of Ark Gallery in Kebayoran Baru.
Potato Head’s prime location at Pacific Place across from the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) building ensures a full house of suits most nights of the week. We visited on a Friday afternoon and found the place already teeming with office workers. Neckties were loosened, hair let down, blazers slung on chairs and cocktails devoured.
Adorned with genuine vintage furniture, lamps and knick-knacks from Australia, France and Indonesia, the decor is impressive, yet unpretentious. There are three main dining areas on the ground floor, the mezzanine and outdoors.
Dining outside, you can mingle with the crowd and enjoy the luxury of seeing and being seen. In this area, you can choose between the low-backed plush sofa seating that invites you to kick back and relax, or sit on one of the iconic Tolix chairs at the long wooden bench.
The steel-framed chairs with slightly rounded backs were shipped from France. “These chairs are commonly used in cafes and bistros in Paris,” said Emmelyn, Potato Head’s event organizer.
The outdoor area is lined with about 500 pots of fresh herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, mint and basil, neatly arranged on shelves in rows.
“Our kitchen staff often takes ingredients from this garden,” Emmelyn said.
Inside the restaurant, the walls and ceilings are covered with well-worn kepryak (Javanese for louvers, or window panes with slated apertures) in various colors and dimensions that cleverly mask the overhead lights, ducts and pipes.
“In total, we use more than 300 louvers salvaged from old houses in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Semarang for the restaurant,” Emmelyn said.
Tables for four with Thonet bentwood chairs from the 1930s are neatly arranged in the dining room. Each is embellished with classic rubber lamps that portray children’s storybook characters.
“We bought them from an antique store in Melbourne,” Emmelyn said.
At the heart of the restaurant is the 12-meter-long bar. Made entirely of white marble, the surface of the bar softly gleams under the light bulbs that are shaded with airplane noses salvaged from an old hangar in Melbourne, where co-owner Jason spent years studying.
Across from the bar is a mural painted by Yogyakarta-based artist Eko Nugroho, who often portrays robots as the subject of his off-kilter creations.
“Eko’s a rising Indonesian artist,” Emmelyn said. “His paintings are always a bit bizarre and paradoxical.”
On Potato Head’s sky-blue walls, Eko has painted flying spaceships with clam-like hands, squid-like creatures with sharp long tendrils reaching out toward diners below and a machine with a face and four legs. These images may seem unsettling for a restaurant, but somehow it works. You could look at the mural for hours and dissect each and every creature.
At the far end of the room is the green wall, which is actually a floor-to-ceiling garden that features suji and maranta plants.
From the ground floor, you can walk down a narrow alley or take the stairs to go to the mezzanine. I’d recommend the alley, as it will take you on quite a scenic journey across the restaurant.
The alley, about 1.5 meters wide, is made of discolored wooden planks taken from old homes. It ascends from the entrance, passing more of Eko’s spaceships and strange creatures on the wall and a magnificent floor-to-ceiling view of the IDX on your right, before reaching the top.
At the top, you have to walk across a narrow bridge flanked with vintage steel railings to reach the mezzanine.
The dining area up above is more secluded and private, with dimmed lighting and well-spaced rows of small tables for four. Larger groups can be seated at a long table on a narrow strip across from the bridge, where you can have more privacy, and, if you please, a very voyeuristic view of the beautiful people.
“We have quite a different crowd on Sundays,” Emmelyn said.
On Sundays, families with young children usually visit. They come for Potato Head’s Vitamin Sunday, which features fresh and healthy food and drinks served a la minute . The tables are also dressed with old-fashioned red-and-white-checkered tablecloths on Sundays.
“It’s just like a picnic,” Emmelyn said.
While the bar/restaurant serves excellent dishes and boasts an extensive cocktail list, it offers something that is a little harder to find in Jakarta — a tasteful yet playful ambience.
And this all makes sense when you meet the two men behind the concept: Ronald Akili and Jason Gunawan, both art collectors and owners of Ark Gallery in Kebayoran Baru.
Potato Head’s prime location at Pacific Place across from the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) building ensures a full house of suits most nights of the week. We visited on a Friday afternoon and found the place already teeming with office workers. Neckties were loosened, hair let down, blazers slung on chairs and cocktails devoured.
Adorned with genuine vintage furniture, lamps and knick-knacks from Australia, France and Indonesia, the decor is impressive, yet unpretentious. There are three main dining areas on the ground floor, the mezzanine and outdoors.
Dining outside, you can mingle with the crowd and enjoy the luxury of seeing and being seen. In this area, you can choose between the low-backed plush sofa seating that invites you to kick back and relax, or sit on one of the iconic Tolix chairs at the long wooden bench.
The steel-framed chairs with slightly rounded backs were shipped from France. “These chairs are commonly used in cafes and bistros in Paris,” said Emmelyn, Potato Head’s event organizer.
The outdoor area is lined with about 500 pots of fresh herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, mint and basil, neatly arranged on shelves in rows.
“Our kitchen staff often takes ingredients from this garden,” Emmelyn said.
Inside the restaurant, the walls and ceilings are covered with well-worn kepryak (Javanese for louvers, or window panes with slated apertures) in various colors and dimensions that cleverly mask the overhead lights, ducts and pipes.
“In total, we use more than 300 louvers salvaged from old houses in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Semarang for the restaurant,” Emmelyn said.
Tables for four with Thonet bentwood chairs from the 1930s are neatly arranged in the dining room. Each is embellished with classic rubber lamps that portray children’s storybook characters.
“We bought them from an antique store in Melbourne,” Emmelyn said.
At the heart of the restaurant is the 12-meter-long bar. Made entirely of white marble, the surface of the bar softly gleams under the light bulbs that are shaded with airplane noses salvaged from an old hangar in Melbourne, where co-owner Jason spent years studying.
Across from the bar is a mural painted by Yogyakarta-based artist Eko Nugroho, who often portrays robots as the subject of his off-kilter creations.
“Eko’s a rising Indonesian artist,” Emmelyn said. “His paintings are always a bit bizarre and paradoxical.”
On Potato Head’s sky-blue walls, Eko has painted flying spaceships with clam-like hands, squid-like creatures with sharp long tendrils reaching out toward diners below and a machine with a face and four legs. These images may seem unsettling for a restaurant, but somehow it works. You could look at the mural for hours and dissect each and every creature.
At the far end of the room is the green wall, which is actually a floor-to-ceiling garden that features suji and maranta plants.
From the ground floor, you can walk down a narrow alley or take the stairs to go to the mezzanine. I’d recommend the alley, as it will take you on quite a scenic journey across the restaurant.
The alley, about 1.5 meters wide, is made of discolored wooden planks taken from old homes. It ascends from the entrance, passing more of Eko’s spaceships and strange creatures on the wall and a magnificent floor-to-ceiling view of the IDX on your right, before reaching the top.
At the top, you have to walk across a narrow bridge flanked with vintage steel railings to reach the mezzanine.
The dining area up above is more secluded and private, with dimmed lighting and well-spaced rows of small tables for four. Larger groups can be seated at a long table on a narrow strip across from the bridge, where you can have more privacy, and, if you please, a very voyeuristic view of the beautiful people.
“We have quite a different crowd on Sundays,” Emmelyn said.
On Sundays, families with young children usually visit. They come for Potato Head’s Vitamin Sunday, which features fresh and healthy food and drinks served a la minute . The tables are also dressed with old-fashioned red-and-white-checkered tablecloths on Sundays.
“It’s just like a picnic,” Emmelyn said.
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