Boozy 'bule' baiting at BuGils bar

Boozy 'bule' baiting at BuGils bar

JAKARTA (JP): Descartes, no doubt after suffering a pecuniary
setback, once said that the only certain thing in life is
uncertainty, or something to that effect.

The developers of the Taman Ria Senayan entertainment complex
must be nodding their heads earnestly in agreement. For Taman Ria
is one of those places that was conceived and planned when all
thought of economic travail (or "multidimensional crisis" as we
here at The Jakarta Post like to describe it), was regarded as
being something akin to treason.

As a result, the complex's huge, precast concrete main block
has been left standing forlorn and virtually empty overlooking
the man-made lake like one of Hitler's bunkers staring blindly
and morosely out over the English Channel.

Even Caravella, a restaurant housed in an enormous mock
Phinisi schooner moored by the side of the lake, which I once
reviewed for this rag, seems to have run aground and, shuttered
up and dark, had all the appearances of a ghost ship on my recent
Saturday-night outing to Taman Ria.

But cheer up, chin-chin, put a brave face on it and so forth.
All's far from being lost in Taman Ria and there's still plenty
of inviting restaurants and pubs there where you can get a bite
to eat and, even better, a beer to glug. One of the latter is the
cheekily named BuGils, a little piece of Amsterdam transported
miraculously to Central Jakarta and a true jewel in this city of
glitz and garishness.

Location: Taman Ria Senayan, Laguna Ria Building Level 1, Jl.
Gerbang Pemuda No. 3, Central Jakarta. Tel: 5747650, 5747652.
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to midnight Sunday to Thursday. Up to 3 a.m. on
Friday and Saturday nights depending on the crowd.

What's it got: Good selection of all the old favorites, as
good as you're likely to get anywhere, plus an excellent
selection of Dutch and Indonesian dishes on the menu. Bintang
draught goes for Rp 20,000 (Rp 90,000 per pitcher), small
Carlsbergs for Rp 27,000 and small Heinekens for Rp 34,000, while
cans of Foster's, Carlsberg and Corona all kick in at Rp 37,000.

A regular spirit will set you back Rp 28,000, while, as you'd
expect, premium spirits command premium prices: Rp 40,000 for
Chivas Regal, Jack Daniel's or Black Label. For cocktail fans,
the prices vary between Rp 37,000 and Rp 45,000, while a glass of
the house wine (Cuvee Speciale) will set you back Rp 40,000 (Rp
210,000 for a bottle, if your stomach is up to chancing that much
of the old Cuvee).

Here's looking at you: As you take time out to study the
cluttered events-listings, personal ads and notices crowding the
walls of the tiny, dimly lit vestibule and spy the warm lights
glowing within behind the curtain, you know you are onto
something well out of the ordinary in Jakarta.

This sense of expectation is more than justified as you enter
the pub with its dark stained wood paneling, wooden floors, heavy
furniture, soft lights and stained glass canopy over the
horseshoe-shaped bar. You might as well be a world away, which,
of course, is exactly the effect that the designers were trying
to create (the joint has only been open for a year and a half,
but looks like it's older than old Methuselah himself -- quite a
feat of interior design).

It's a compact and cozy pub, and kind of triangular in shape,
with the bar being located on the baseline and the entrance at
the apex.

When we arrived at 9 p.m, there were only a few hardy punters
slurping at the trough, but by the time of our departure at 11
p.m., the place had filled up nicely with a good mix of Europeans
and locals, making for a good buzz all round -- one of the local
wags even had a go on the white upright piano strategically
located in the center of the pub to give us a bit of a knees up,
as Londoners would call it.

In fact, BuGils to my mind looks more like a London pub than
anything else I can think of, an impression reinforced by one of
those noisy fruit machines that are so ubiquitous in England.
Fortunately this one wasn't working -- yet! But perhaps pubs in
Amsterdam are the same. I wouldn't know as I've never been there.

Oh, by the way, they've even got a bule serving wench, sorry,
barmaid. Now, that's something out of the ordinary in Jakarta,
isn't it?

Odds and ends: Well, let's cut to the chase and get any
possible controversy over the name of the place out of the way. I
referred to it as cheeky before and not without reason.

You see, the word Bugil means stark naked in Indonesian. Hey,
that's not very cheeky, I hear you sniff in a superior, worldly-
wise tone. Well, that's not all, for BuGils also has a more
sinister meaning as it is a compound of the Indonesian words
bule, sekali and gila. Well? Well, bule is a slang word that
actually means albino but is used to refer to Europeans,
Caucasians, whiteys, you know, that kind of thing, sekali means
really, while gila means mad or crazy.

But don't worry, any of you afflicted by old-fogeyism out
there should refrain from getting cranky or flapping the wings in
righteous indignation as BuGils is actually owned by a Dutchman
who apparently has a bit of a taste for self-deprecation (pity
there aren't more like him, I say). And, of course, it could be
worse, the pub could have been called monyet putih (white
monkey), another common street term for Europeans here.

Last Call: Ten out of ten on all counts. Great looks,
atmosphere and service and congrats to the owner and staff on a
job well done. For any of you looking for a regular watering
hole, you could do a lot worse than BuGils. (Bill Blade)