O'Hagan's Pub a spot of genuine Irish green

O'Hagan's Pub a spot of genuine Irish green

JAKARTA (JP): Despite the fact that it was only a few weeks
ago that your reviewer was bemoaning the lack of a true Irish pub
in this great metropolis, he is now pleased to be in a position
to report to all the Guinness guzzlers out there that this
lamentable situation has been addressed.

The capital is now home to O'Hagan's Pub, a green-as-cabbage
Irish pub that with a bit of fine-tuning and filling out will be
capable of going the distance with the best of them. According to
our bartender, a mine of information if ever there was one, it
had originally been planned to open the pub around the time of
the May 1998 riots but that the plan was postponed for obvious
reasons (the now refurbished Slipi Plaza across the street was
looted and gutted in the mayhem).

Things are now, however, looking much brighter, he informed us
(perhaps O'Hagan's knows something that we don't!), with the
bar's recent soft opening.

Location: Hotel Menara Peninsula, Jl. S. Parman, on the right
hand side if you are heading from Jl. Gatot Subroto in the
direction of Grogol.

Hours: 5 p.m. daily until 1 a.m. Sunday to Thursday, and 2
a.m. Friday and Saturday, depending on the crowd. Happy Hour is
from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day and gives you a 50 percent
discount on draught beers (currently confined to Bintang), but
not on spirits.

What's it got: The usual beers, and premium and regular
spirits, with the promise that they are going to soon have
Guinness and Kilkenny Irish Lager on tap. This immediately brings
to mind promises made by certain other "Irish" pubs in Jakarta to
get the black stuff installed some years ago, promises which
have, unfortunately, remained unfulfilled. However, our bartender
assured us that the kegs were already there and it was only a
matter of waiting for FedEx to deliver the pouring equipment from
Singapore. So, at this stage it would appear that it's just a
matter of putting our feet up and biding our time a little bit
longer.

Bill, please: O'Hagan's is pretty much unique in Jakarta in
that it serves draught beer up in pint and half-pint glasses (the
traditional measures in Ireland and Britain). A pint of Bintang
draught will set you back Rp 32,000 while a half-pint goes for Rp
18,000. Meanwhile, a pint of Irish Guinness or Kilkenny lager
(when they eventually come on stream in the, hopefully, not too
distant future), will set you back Rp 50,000, or Rp 32,500 for a
half-pint.

For a premium mix, that is a premium spirit such as Johnny
Walker Black Label and a mixer, be prepared to cough up Rp
40,000. Given these prices, a 10 percent service charge and the
ubiquitous government tax, O'Hagan's is by no means cheap (the
prices are higher than they are in Ireland, for God's sake), so
if you're planning a major shindig, make sure you bring your gold
card along!

Here's looking at you: The fact that O'Hagan's is located
beside the basement parking lot far from the glitz of the hotel
above could be a little off-putting to some punters, especially
as it's not all that easy to find. However, any doubts evaporate
once you spot the traditional Irish pub front, only to return
ten-fold as soon as you walk in through the solid timber doors.

The problem, you see, is that this particular space wasn't
designed to house a pub, which should be cozy and convivial (it
was probably intended for a storeroom or even an extension to the
parking lot). As a result, O'Hagan's at the moment is a long,
cold and high-ceilinged barn of a place that on first appearances
would be enough to make any red-blooded Irishman hightail it out
of there quick smart except for the fact that he had come half
way across town to get there in the first place.

However, we were later on in the evening informed by the
manager that the pub's bleakness was due to the fact that half of
the furniture and fittings had still to arrive from Ireland. So,
as in the case of the draught Guinness and Kilkenny lager,
delivery problems were at the root of the issue.

The bar itself, like the entire pub at the moment, is also
long, rectangular and pretty spartan (more delivery problems) but
certainly has the potential to become convivial if only they
would dim the lights a bit, which when we were there were more
like those to be found in a KGB interrogation cell than a bar.
Directly across from the bar is a pretty large stage bedecked in
Irish flags, and a dance floor that remained completely empty and
forlorn-looking all through our visit, which was understandable
as the band had only started to pipe up by the time we were
leaving (around 10 p.m.).

As for decoration, it is confined to a few flags, a map of
Ireland and some wall-plate advertisements. But again, we were
assured that improvements were forthcoming pretty soon on the
decor front.

Odds and ends: For those of you who find knocking back the
pints for hours on end a tad monotonous, there's a beautiful
little pool table as you come into the pub, and there's also a
dart board tucked away in one of the few nooks to be found in the
establishment. There's also music on offer every night (mostly
easy listening and '60s, '70s and '80s hits -- no Techno we were
told decisively), with the most interesting development here
being the Monday night jam sessions when musicians are invited to
bring along their gear and give it a whack. Sounds promising!

Last call: O'Hagan's the way it stands at the moment is a
pretty exposed and frigid place with its white walls and
penetrating lighting, somewhat akin to the inside of a
refrigerator, in fact. However, we were assured that this is all
set to change over the next few weeks in the run-up to the pub's
grand opening, provided that the deliveries from Ireland and
Singapore arrive on time, that is.

Let's hope that they do for, in reality, O'Hagan's has great
potential to fill the void in Jakarta created by the lack of a
genuine Irish hostelry. So, come on guys, get all that furniture
in, put the Guinness on tap and turn down the lights a bit and,
as they say in Ireland, you'll be on the pig's back, or in other
words, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank! (Bill Blade)