Going upscale

Our neighborhood, Pejompongan, is nice but not especially trendy. The eateries are all warungs, i.e. street-food places, and they don't put a lot of effort into marketing. In fact, Bu Dena's place across the street is now so well hidden that one needs a highly sensitive warungometer to find it at all.

Now, however, there are little signs of incipient funkiness cropping up around us. Case in point: the Baca (BAH-cha) Cafe.


Baca, which means "read," calls itself "the Book Lovers Cafe" (in English - a sure sign of trendiness). They have lots of second-hand books you can read while drinking your coffee, or you can buy a membership and borrow books for a fee. The coffee is all instant, which is a little disappointing, but at least it's cheap.


It's a cute place, and given the relatively high price of books here, it deserves to survive. But it's a little out of the way, so I worry about its future. If anyone wants to check it out, it's on Jl. Gelinggang, off Jl. Limboto, just down the block from a little stairway down to Gatot Subroto across from the DPR.