Old ice cream parlors left out in the cold

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): Irwan Hermawan remembers courting his now wife Yulita over ice cream at Ragusa Es Italia on Jl. Veteran, Central Jakarta.

"I would pedal my bike from my house in Pasar Baru (Central Jakarta) to her house and then spend a beautiful date at Ragusa. Both of us liked the tutti-frutti ice cream very much," said the 62-year-old resident of Cempaka Putih, East Jakarta.

"Ragusa was a nice place for us to have a date," agreed Yulita, 60, who married Irwan in 1963. The parents of two sons still make regular weekend visits to the parlor.

Yet most of the ice cream parlors where families and young lovers gathered in the past are now gone, their place taken by coffee shops and cafes.

The 1978 Guide Book to Restaurants in Jakarta listed eight ice cream "palaces" in the city -- Australia, Baltic, Djajasari, Picco Bello, Rendez Vous, Tropic, Tjanang and Tjan Njan. Today only Ragusa, Baltic, Tjanang and Tropic survive, remaining true to their old recipes to stay in business.

Ice cream parlors were exclusive places to escape from the heat of the city during the Dutch colonial era, when they were mostly visited by the Dutch and other Westerners or wealthy Indonesians.

After independence in 1945, the parlors remained popular. Older citizens remembered how enjoyable it was to visit Tjan Njan parlor on Jl. Cikini Raya, sitting under umbrellas in typical low rattan chairs on the sidewalk and being served by waiters in white uniforms.

The only one of the remaining parlors preserving the old ambience is Ragusa Es Italia, close to the National Monument area in Central Jakarta, where Irwan and Yulita used to go for their dates.

The rattan chairs, white-uniformed waiters and the two-story oblong-shaped restaurant interior remain, although it is not as spacious as the original restaurant.

The parlor also has a unique history -- it once belonged to an Italian family, who gave it its name.

Established by them in 1932 in Bandung, West Java, the parlor became a mainstay of the Pasar Gambir annual festival in Central Jakarta.

Present owner Sias Mawarni said the ice cream was a hit during the festival, prompting the owner to move to Jakarta in 1945.

"At first, they built a restaurant on Jl. H. Juanda, Central Jakarta but then moved to Jl. Veteran until now."

The Ragusas themselves returned to their homeland but left the business to the family of Sias' husband.

"One of the Ragusa daughters married my brother-in-law, that's why the business was then managed by my husband's family after we received the traditional recipes of basic ingredients of milk, eggs, sugar and flavoring," the 57-year-old woman said.

There are now seven Ragusa eateries throughout Jakarta and the Puncak resort area in West Java, but only that on Jl. Veteran is still maintained as an ice cream parlor.

Memories

Although not as old as Ragusa, Tjanang ice cream parlor also holds tender memories for many longtime residents of the capital who visited it during their youth.

But what made owner Lie Sim Fie happy was not only that his parlor was well-known among the public -- it also was popular among the country's leaders, including first president Sukarno and former president Soeharto.

Sim Fie's daughter Yeny Mulia said, "I still clearly remember that during the Sukarno era we received many orders from the presidential palace whenever there were parties for official guests. At that time we had to pack the ice cream in layers because we did not have dry ice."

The ice cream was also a favorite of the Soeharto family in the 1970s and 1980s.

"The family usually ordered our ice cream for family gatherings, like birthday celebrations for Soeharto's grandchildren," said Yeny, whose father now lives in the United States.

It was not only the taste that kept the presidential staff coming back for more.

Yeny said her mother told her to give money to some of them so they would remain "loyal" and always order the palace's ice cream from the parlor.

When it was established in the 1940s the parlor's name was Tjan Njan, for Lie Tjan Njan, Sim Fie's older brother. Sim Fie was still in China when his brother opened the shop in the Cikini area. Sim Fie arrived here later and continued the business after his brother died.

"A Dutchman taught my father how to make the ice cream and my father then established Tjan Njan parlor," said Yeny, 48.

She added that coconut ice cream was the most popular among the customers. "I think it's because we use real coconut for our ice cream, never flavoring."

But you have to look hard to find Tjanang ice cream today, as it operates out of a small open space on the terrace of a restaurant on Jl. Cikini IV.

"The space (on Jl. Cikini Raya) was rented out three years ago," said Yeny.

A worse fate befell Baltic ice cream, which was established in 1939, as its famous parlor on Jl. Kramat Raya in Central Jakarta was demolished in 1987 for the widening of the street (a small part of the building still stands but is used as a factory).

Many older citizens were upset by the loss of one of their favorite places to while away an afternoon with a soft drink and a bowl of ice cream.

A loyal customer was neurologist Samuel Lazuardi, who said he would sometimes have the ice cream after lectures at the University of Indonesia's Salemba campus, which was located on the same street.

"I rode my bike from the campus to enjoy the ice cream, but sometimes I also went there after seeing a movie at Metropole (now Megaria cinema in Central Jakarta). It was quite a distance but Baltic was very famous," said Samuel.

Customers sometimes had to wait for a seat, he said, because "Baltic was very popular for its chocolate-coated ice cream sticks."

PT Balticindo Jaya Food director Mulya Setiawan said the company still produced the ice cream sticks but based on orders and for ice cream vendors.

The business was pioneered by Mulya's father, the late Thio Ban Lie, who learned to make ice cream from his Chinese business colleague. They established a firm named Arctic ice cream.

"But eventually the cooperation was no longer possible and my father ran it alone," Mulya said.