The salsa and STIX -- An unabashed nightspot review
By David M. Schiller
JAKARTA (JP): Just as the United States Senate last week took an oath of impartiality prior to starting the impeachment hearings of President Clinton, I also took an oath of honesty prior to penning this review of a Saturday night at STIX, a restaurant/nightclub located beneath the Park Lane Hotel in Kuningan, South Jakarta. So here it is, the good, the bad, gems and warts, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but...
The first challenge was simply finding the entrance to STIX. The door was, of course, unmarked and cryptically located at the base of a bunker-like stairwell. This enhanced the feeling that one was entering a private club rather than a hotel bar, especially when we were greeted by a hostess decked out in metallic gold thigh-high boots and matching skirt that could of graced any James Bond movie.
The interior was pleasantly dim but not dark, with a stage backlit by an array of televisions, a marble and granite dance floor and sparsely augmented metallic walls.
The menu was distinctly Latin-flavored with a slender but pleasing selection of steaks, seafood and slightly nouveau Mexican dishes. The heavily spiced fried calamari was brilliant, as was the flavorful authentic salsa which accompanied the nachos. My main course, pork tacos, was only about two-thirds there.
The soft-shell corn tortillas were spot on, as was the pork texture, but the meat was way too bland and absolutely screaming for a good chili verde sauce. Maybe next time (hey chef!, are you listening?).
The refried beans were gratefully homemade and tasted like they were fresh from a tin of Rosarita Refried (which is a compliment actually, if you know your refried beans). My friend's boiled lobster was enormous, simple -- set on a bed of rice and accompanied by only lemon and melted butter -- and from my friend's expression, delicious as well.
The mixed drinks were expensive but adequate (similar to B.A.T.S. at about Rp 40,000 a pop), the Irish coffees were a B- minus, but, except under threat of death, excommunication or nuclear holocaust, do not, repeat, do not order the margaritas. None of us had a clue what the bartender was using for a lime mixer, but whatever it was, it certainly was not meant for a margarita, or human consumption for that matter.
STIX had better quickly get is act together in this department because a Mexican bar without a proper margarita is equivalent to a Sushi Bar serving up watered-down arak in place of saki.
We settled into another round of tall drinks as the main attraction of STIX, La Otra Banda (The Other Band in Spanish), made its way onto the stage at 10:15pm. Make no mistake about it, this nine-piece salsa band from Mexico City knows how to sizzle and cook the jalapenos big time! And this is coming from a Southern Californian who has made more than a few deep forays south of the border.
La Otra Banda features four percussionists, a two-piece horn section and a keyboardist that pound out virtuoso mambo and meringue improvisations that just do not allow you to sit still. They ran through a blistering set of unknown Cuban, Mexican and South American salsa numbers, as well as crowd-pleasing renditions of better-known songs like La Bamba, Oy Como Va and The Boy From Ipanema.
Watching a few tight-skirted leggy females, who took to the dance floor and definitely knew their cha-cha from a bossa nova, I realized that there is just something about high-percussion Latin music that makes it far more sensual than most other styles of music. By 11:30 the place was about half full and cranking, a very respectable crowd considering it being the middle of Ramadhan, and that the band unfortunately debuted at STIX in December, a month when over half of Jakarta's expat population is away on holidays.
The crowd itself was pleasantly cosmopolitan -- about half local and expat, a mixture of well-heeled pribumi (native Indonesians) and Chinese residents, Latin American diplomats and several groups of Indonesian and Western ladies out for a very danceable girls' night on the town.
Fully satiated with salsa for the evening, we asked for our bills. Mine was Rp 290,000, including ample before and after dinner drinks. Not exactly a cheap night out but the quality musical entertainment, plus the discovery of such a tasteful night spot hidden so close to home (I live in Kuningan) made the evening more than one well spent.
As I left, one of the percussionists was bashing away on a huge Brazilian samba drum, and I couldn't help but step in time to the infectious rhythms as I mounted the stairs. La Otra Banda is scheduled through February at the Park Lane (and hopefully longer). If you love Latin music, salsa at STIX is a mix well worth checking out.