Indonesian Eclecticism at Loloan Lobby Bar in Uptown Waterloo (from the archives December 28, 2018)

Deeply Nuanced Southwest Asian Cuisine at Loloan Lobby Bar

 

BY BRYAN LAVERY

 Paul Boehmer, a George Brown College graduate, has a well-rounded career including apprenticeships at Michelin starred hotels, Langdon Hall a Relais & Chateaux property, and the iconic Three Small Rooms at Windsor Arms, before opening Bhima’s Warung in 1994. Boehmer travelled on research trips to spend time with home cooks all over the Indonesian archipelago and beyond, documenting recipes. He owned and operated a fine dining restaurant in Bali, Indonesia for five years– which became part of the inspiration for Loloan.

When Boehmer opened Bhima’s it was an ambitious undertaking to embrace the spectrum of regional cuisines, and variety of ingredients, spices and cooking methods largely unfamiliar to most diners. Boehmer has made a point of evangelizing cuisines that are less well known while not necessarily sticking to a strictly codified authenticity allowing room for creativity and high quality
alternative ingredients that are locally-sourced. The Loloan partners travelled to southeast Asia in January of 2017. It was an opportunity to get to know each other better and get the lay of the land culinarily speaking. During their pilgrimage they didn’t stay at the high-end hotels, instead, they sought out the lobby bars in luxury hotels where they could enjoy the allure and amenities offered to guests and visitors. This is how they came up with the idea of modelling Loloan after a lobby bar. Loloan translated means “where the river meets the ocean,” the pool formed in this convergence is called a ‘loloan’.

Loloan’s décor is elegant with the owners’ personal tastes expressed with a combination of Art Deco opulence paired with colonial Indonesian eclecticism. The three-sided marble bar seats 25, with comfortable lounge chairs upholstered with soft turquoise leather. Iconic stylized Art Deco lady statuettes holding illuminated globes adorn the top of the marble bar every few feet like chic hood ornaments. Stylish illuminated globe pendants are suspended overhead, which adds to the bar’s timeless ambience. There are heavy revolving doors at the entrance, an intricate Art Deco-inspired ceiling, tiled floors, a charming rotary phone from the 1930s, and elephant- branded accessories and matchboxes. There are 3-two tops in the front window, to watch passersby, and a seasonal street side-patio for alfresco eating and drinking called the tuk tuk teras, named after, I assume, the motorized rickshaw. The dining room seats around 40 in elegant booths and button-tufted banquettes. A well-placed large window above the banquettes gives patrons a birds-eye view into the kitchen to watch the action. Upstairs above the main dining room is the Map Room. The luxurious room is reserved for private parties and requires reservations and menu consultation in advance.  

My familiarity with Indonesian cuisine extends past the traditional Dutch-Indonesian rijsttafel – the multi-course "rice meal" that I have eaten in Amsterdam and The Hague on several occasions. Chef Mies Bervoets, a long-time colleague, familiarized me with Indonesian-inspired cuisine prepared with skill and finesse in London, Ontario when we were neighbouring restaurateurs for nearly a decade. But the culinary expression at Loloan is more rarefied and deeply nuanced.

Chef Jon Rennie, Boehmer's protégé and former sous chef at Bhima's, is now chef at Loloan. His menus are upscale, sensory experiences meticulously conceptualized with sumptuously textured offerings that are tangy, spicy, aromatic and herbal. Like fresh sambal, the flavour building Indonesian hot sauce, Loloan’s cuisine packs heat and flavour in equal parts. Menus are gastronomic forays through the regional and cross-cultural cuisines of Southeast Asia, with homage being paid to Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand. Appetizers are modelled on the offerings reminiscent of the small family-owned shacks and stalls – warungs – which sell street food alongside Indonesia’s roadsides.

Traditional recipes often comprise up to a dozen herb and spice ingredients to achieve authenticity. Galangal and lemongrass may be essential to building Indonesian flavours, but the crushing and grinding of ingredients such as chilli peppers and spices, and grinding herbs and even fibrous ingredients like turmeric, ginger and kaffir lime leaves by mortar and pestle are essential. Indonesians have developed distinctly original gastronomic themes with lemongrass, galangal, tamarind, turmeric ginger and cardamom.

Nem Trio finds its inspiration in Singapore, Hanoi and Thailand and is comprised of seafood salpicón (a combination of ingredients mixed in sort of a salad) in rice paper with lemongrass sambal; ca cuốn thit a catfish and sausage fried roll with sour cherry nuoc (dipping sauce); and ginger-cured arctic char with somtom (green papaya salad) roll and crab oil. Menus are loaded with exotic ingredients that, along with the stylish dining room, evoke the term fine dining. Try the Kwai Massaman, curry bison short rib, pickled mustard green, chili jam, morning glory, mushroom salad and rice or Gaeng Dtaeng Pet with roasted Muscovy duck, lychee curry, oyster omelette, smoky gapi rice (shrimp paste fried rice) and prik nam plaa (classic Thai chilli and fish sauce); or Moo Parlow which is pork neck slowly braised in star anise caramel liquor, steamed rice noodle, crackling, pickled duck egg and condiments. Asam Laska features a terrine of seafood, pork meatballs, laksa noodle and smoky tamarind broth with condiments to make it crackle. The Laarb Kwai features fresh Ontario water buffalo prepared with a traditional Laotian ‘tartare’ recipe. Hati Gamuck a terrine of foie gras with heartnuts, buntut (oxtail) gelée, tourtière croûte and kumquat sambal. Chef recently introduced, crested partridge brined in ginger and roasted with lemongrass and citrus, served with fenugreek and yogurt sauce, seasonal vegetables, chutney and belachaung (a traditional condiment of fried onions, dried shrimp, ginger and red chillies).

There are snacks (at the bar), a la carte and weekly prixe fixe and late night street food menus. The smartly-attired professional staffs take their well-crafted cocktails seriously and the cocktail menu finds its muse in flavours and combinations from across the globe. Butterfly Pea Flower Martini is vodka, lychee, butterfly pea flower and salty-sweet pretzels served on a wooden board. It finds its inspiration at the Siam Kempinski Hotel in Bangkok. The cocktail contains butterfly pea flower which causes the drink to change from blue to violet when you add the sidecar of lychee. The Balinese-inspired Ingat (which literally means take care) comprises gin, wild gunung honey, fresh kunyit (turmeric), tamarind and pomelo.   

 There is an extensive bourbon and whisky list. Another of Loloan’s strengths is the impeccable Wes Klassen, a certified sommelier, who you may know from Bhima’s Warung, Langdon Hall or the former Berlin. He skillfully adds another dimension to your fine dining enjoyment by guiding patrons in pairings that balance the flavours and idiosyncrasies of the cuisine.

 

Loloan Lobby Bar
14 Princess Street West
Waterloo, Ontario
519-883-1010

Bryan Lavery, brings years of professional experience in the hospitality industry, as a co-founder of the Lavery Culinary Group, food writer, chef, event planner, restaurateur and mentor.