There’s always great potential in the sharing of space between F&B retailers and other forms of businesses these days. When designed properly, it creates a synergy that could potentially attract customers with different preferences. Such case can be found within a building known traditionally as the flagship location of Jakarta’s funkiest, novelty bookstore (ak.’sa.ra) and for Casa – a casual, international cuisine restaurant. Currently, something interesting is happening in the space behind the bookstore where a recent collaboration between three businesses is energising the whole building.
This is where Kinosaurus – a micro-cinema and Ruang Seduh – a third-wave coffee shop join arms. Kinosaurus’ Adinda Simanjuntak had the idea to approach the co-owners of A Bunch of Caffeine Dealers; or more popularly known as ABCD School of Coffee. The gentlemen behind ABCD are Hendri Kurniawan and Ve Handojo, who also already had in mind the direction for Ruang Seduh. The coffee shop serves as not just a place to enjoy quality coffee but also allows patrons to experience brewing their own coffee. Adinda and her husband, who is a filmmaker, wanted to star t their own micro-cinema business to cater to the demand for more independent, non-mainstream movies. Adinda wanted the cinema’s design to be casual, approachable and well equipped for a complete experience.
The all-white open bar of Ruang Seduh adapts two means of brewing coffee – using the mini La Marzocco espresso machine and the rare yet unique Walküre’s Bayreuth porcelain coffee maker for manual brewing. The openness of the bar itself was designed specifically to encourage interaction between customers and the baristas. For each means of coffee brewing, it employs the use of different grinding machines from Mahlkönig and Nuovo Simonelli. Ruang Seduh also encourages young artists to display their finest artworks there and that initiative is definitely in line with the whole spirit of the concept.
The only puzzle left for Adinda to fill was one remaining corner. She partnered teachers to establish Ganara – an art and educational space for family. Hence, the partnership between these three has created a business model that goes beyond relying on profits from F&B but successfully created an interest and influx of traffic to the whole building. The establishment of Kinosaurus, Ruang Seduh, and Ganara completes the experience for those who are seeking more than just individual aspects of finer things in life with film, coffee, ar , music, food, and novelty things within one stop.
Despite the passionate spirit from the minds these passionate people, the education and the easy accessibility for everyone is the key for them to survive and flourish. While Ruang Seduh has already opened another outlet in Yogyakarta and will continue to collaborate in harmony with Kinosaurus and Ganara, Adinda hopes for Kinosaurus itself that this movement would ultimately spark bigger excitements in the film, food, and ar t communities. And true enough, we might see those days coming sooner than expected.
