Long time between drinks in Bali
It is March 2020 and Bali is closed due to the pandemic. Canggu, the island’s main tourist precinct, is eerily quiet and nearly all of the 1000-odd restaurants and bars are closed. I am sitting inside Milk & Madu, one of the few places that stayed open, with co-owner Jordie Strybos of Byron Bay and his mood couldn’t be bleaker.
After seven years running half a dozen hyper-successful cafe-style eateries in Bali, and having only recently rebuilt Milk & Madu after a freak fire gutted the place, it had all come undone.
“How long do you think it will be until things bounce back?” he asked me, staring emptily at his empty restaurant. “I don’t know, mate. They reckon it might be a year or two until a vaccine is developed. Maybe more,” I said. Jordie put his head into his palm and sighed. He had always been a kind and gracious host and it was not easy seeing him like this. Somehow Jordie found the strength and capital to muddle through the pandemic. Milk & Madu is now pumping again and Jordie and his partners have since opened two more instalments of the popular concept in different parts of Bali, with a total of 10 venues on the island.
His newest venue, Longtime, a 150-seat modern-Asian restaurant and bar set on Berawa Road in the heart of Canggu, is testament to his never-say-die attitude and more than a decade’s experience in Bali’s hyper-competitive F&B industry.
“COVID was rocky for everyone in Bali and we really got rinsed. But we managed to push through,” Jordie told me when we caught up again for the first time in years at Longtime during its opening week in September.
“We bought this land before the pandemic and forgot about it for five years because we were so busy trying to rescue our core business.
“Originally we planned to do a Mexican place, but now everyone in Canggu is doing that and we thought we wanted to do something different, something more grown up, a dining destination rather than another cafe-style place.
“So we did a big tour of all our favourite restaurants in Australia, the places that inspired us, and by chance, Tyler Preston, the former head chef of our all-time favourite place, Bang Bang in Byron Bay, was looking for something new.
“So, we caught up and convinced him to move his family to Bali. Why the Modern-Asian theme? Well, we know the hospitality market here pretty well and thought Bali was missing that kind of thing.”
The name may sound kitschy but Longtime, as Jordie says, is quite grown up.
Edged by an undercover dining terrace with tropical plants, the hanger-style dining room has a 1950s retro-vintage interior with exposed brickwork, arched windows, sliding doors, an eight metre-long cocktail bar, with thought-provoking paintings of female figures, horses and vases by renowned Balinese artist Riz Riz Rizz.
There are several different seating options, including a shared dining table with leatherback bar stools, banquet booths with deep tan-colour sofas and a semi-private dining room on the side.
The bespoke cocktail list has 15 options. The bestselling Mean Aunty combines rum, yogurt, lemon, and pineapple.
For entrees, maybe beef rendang curry, a tuna sashimi with coconut and pickled cucumber that needed no wasabi or soy sauce, and the prawn and pork dumplings with black vinegar.
For mains, pork belly with tamarind caramel and pineapple, crispy duck with Thai basil, and a yellow curry of roasted cauliflower and charred cabbage.
Longtime is not fine dining but has more class than a casual dining restaurant. Because it’s in Bali, you can go there in shorts and thongs though you wouldn’t feel out of place in a summer suit or little black dress. It’s funky, creative, whimsical and full of swagger.
Camera Icon The founders. Credit: /The West Australian
Camera Icon Private dining room. Credit: /The West AustralianCamera Icon Betal leaf. Credit: /The West AustralianCamera Icon Curious burrata. Credit: /The West AustralianCamera Icon Sticky pork belly. Credit: /The West Australian
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