Jakarta

For those who remember the days when Sarinah was the epicentre of activity in Jakarta. The McDonalds has closed!

[URL]https://www.thejakartapost.com/multimedia/2020/05/12/customers-ignore-physical-distancing-to-bid-farewell-to-indonesias-first-mcdonalds-restaurant.html[/URL]

Ok so it did spend time as that god awful Captain something or other about ten years back due to franchise disputes, but many a happy time was started in that place after you tried your luck elsewhere. As the interviewees attest to in the video! Not for me though, never one pickup there apart from the only case of a bad stomach to ever result in Indonesia.

It joins the Hard Rock cafe next door (and JJs / Tanamour down the road) as but a memory in long time Jakarta expat minds.

[QUOTE=HungMan1808;2450587]For those who remember the days when Sarinah was the epicentre of activity in Jakarta. The McDonalds has closed!

[URL]https://www.thejakartapost.com/multimedia/2020/05/12/customers-ignore-physical-distancing-to-bid-farewell-to-indonesias-first-mcdonalds-restaurant.html[/URL]

Ok so it did spend time as that god awful Captain something or other about ten years back due to franchise disputes, but many a happy time was started in that place after you tried your luck elsewhere. As the interviewees attest to in the video! Not for me though, never one pickup there apart from the only case of a bad stomach to ever result in Indonesia.

It joins the Hard Rock cafe next door (and JJs / Tanamour down the road) as but a memory in long time Jakarta expat minds.[/QUOTE]Memories, memories. For me, this McD was always tconnected to jalan Jaksa. Had I no luck in that hamburger joint, I would leave and go there to have a beer and some fun.

[QUOTE=HungMan1808;2450587]For those who remember the days when Sarinah was the epicentre of activity in Jakarta. The McDonalds has closed!
[/QUOTE]Remember it very well, lots of memories with HRC next and if I'm not mistaken, a Chillies Restaurant. Later on for the final drinks of the night to Jaksa! Legendary!

[QUOTE=Ekspat;2450626]Remember it very well, lots of memories with HRC next and if I'm not mistaken, a Chillies Restaurant. Later on for the final drinks of the night to Jaksa! Legendary![/QUOTE]Back in the days when the Hard Rock Cafe was, like its counterparts in KL, Bali and elsewhere, a very handy late-night pick-up joint and not the bland, family-friendly, mall restaurant it is today.

Chilies has also gone downhill, not as a pick-up joint, I don't think it was ever that but in terms of quality. It used to be a great spot for drinks, ice-cold mugs of beer or margaritas, and a steak but it had a redecoration a couple of years back and somehow lost a lot of its charm. The last time I was in there it was positively grotty, closing at 11 pm, there were no other customers and the tables were sticky and dirty.

I don't think Sarinah as a whole can survive much longer, more modern malls can expect to go to the wall as a result of this pandemic, I really can't see how an old 1960's style department store can possibly stay in business.

JJs and Tanamour are but distant memories, Today Country has long gone (probably just as well mind you, given its, er, proclivities), the 6th Floor of Melawai closed and Falatehan faded well past its glory days, no more Hard Rock and McD's in Sarinah. Of my earliest memories of Jakarta, with the exception of CJs and BATS (Tiga Puluh died a decade or more ago) only Jaksa remains largely as it was. Wait, is Jaya Pub still open? Do bules still go there?

Edited to add: And of course the granddaddy of them all Stadium, how many more lost icons can anyone recall?

[QUOTE=Hilo77;2450632]Wait, is Jaya Pub still open? Do bules still go there?[/QUOTE]Jaya Pub is still open. For a good many years, they had no customers. But for the last 10 years or so it has been packed. Mostly locals now (not naughty girls anymore), and some bules, but the bules who go are usually there with their bule wives. I still go on occasion to listen to the music. At least prior to this stupid coronavirus shit.

[QUOTE=HungMan1808;2450587]Ok so it did spend time as that god awful Captain something or other about ten years back due to franchise disputes, but many a happy time was started in that place after you tried your luck elsewhere. As the interviewees attest to in the video! Not for me though, never one pickup there apart from the only case of a bad stomach to ever result in Indonesia.[/QUOTE]I didn't notice any difference between the food at that Captain something restaurant and McDonalds. I think he was still selling McDonalds food but calling it Captain whatever. I liked his pirate theme. Pretty cool. He did add a few things to the menu as well. It's amazing how they can get away with copyright infringement in Indonesia. Kind of like when Subway sub shops closed in Jakarta and they renamed it to Mamas subs or something like that, but still served the subs almost exactly the same, even wrapped in Subway wrapping paper. Haha.

I met more than one girl at that Sarinah McDonalds after late nights out at Tanamur / JJs / Hard Rock. My ex girlfriend told me the story of when that McDonalds first opened, her family made a special trip from the kampung to Jakarta just to go to that McDonalds. It seems that was a popular thing to do. That, and to try the escalators in Sarinah since those were the first ever built in Indonesia.

[QUOTE=Hilo77;2450632]
Edited to add: And of course the granddaddy of them all Stadium, how many more lost icons can anyone recall?[/QUOTE]Too many to mention. Lintas Melawai, Tambora, Elvis at Oscar, to name a few. And for the locals: salon!!

[QUOTE=Menteng;2450685]Too many to mention. Lintas Melawai, Tambora, Elvis at Oscar, to name a few. And for the locals: salon!![/QUOTE]My goodness Menteng! Are you still around?

[QUOTE=Hilo77;2451056]My goodness Menteng! Are you still around?[/QUOTE]Yes, my friend, thanks to the yellowish pills. But it is no fun watching all those icons in Jakarta disappear. Makes you conscious of your age!

[QUOTE=Menteng;2450685]Too many to mention. Lintas Melawai, Tambora, Elvis at Oscar, to name a few. And for the locals: salon!![/QUOTE]Elvis has unfortunately left the building.

Hi friends.

The great depression in 1930's,The great recession in 2008,what is in 2020?The great attrition?

[QUOTE=Smoothy;2451755]Elvis has unfortunately left the building.[/QUOTE]GREAT!! I should have had my camera more often with me in those days. That's how you create strolls down memory lane.

[QUOTE=Thampi62;2452063]Hi friends.

The great depression in 1930's,The great recession in 2008,what is in 2020?The great attrition?[/QUOTE]The great coronation.

Well, another part of history is gone.

D's Place has announced that it is closed for good. What is left of Pelatehan?

[QUOTE=Menteng;2451067]Yes, my friend, thanks to the yellowish pills. But it is no fun watching all those icons in Jakarta disappear. Makes you conscious of your age![/QUOTE]And now even the's Place has announced that it is being closed for good. Is that the last of the legacy of the legendary Darryl Patton?