Dining area.

Alcohol has been used as ingredient in cooking for a long time.

Some traditional alcohol-infused dishes include coq au vin and beef bourguignon, which are well-known, traditional recipes from the Burgundy region of France.

More modern Western examples are beer-grilled chicken and sausages boiled in beer. Indonesians also love a bit of alcohol in their food, especially in snacks and desserts.

The sweet-and-sour taste of tape ketan (fermented sticky rice) is a favorite and can be found in snacks such as tape uli or desserts such as es doger and es campur.

With so many possibilities to include alcohol in food, you can set up a whole meal, from appetizers to dessert, with alcohol flavoring each dish.

Alcoholics Bar & Grill is one of the very few '€” if not the only establishment in Jakarta '€” to have a menu almost exclusively comprised of alcohol-infused food and beverages.

Beer can chicken.With the tagline '€œThe only place where you can '€˜eat'€™ alcohol'€, the restaurants offers patrons a chance to get alcohol into their digestive system one way or another.

Although the establishment'€™s choice of name seems obvious, some have criticized it as too ambiguous and unlikely to attract the right customers in this Muslim-majority nation, even though almost all the alcohol evaporates during the cooking process.

Andreas Sumasdi, the restaurant'€™s public relations manager, said that Alcoholics'€™ Bar and Grill has been attracting regular clients since its opening in April last year.

'€œOur most busy day is, of course, Saturday night, with guests filling our bar and dining area,'€ Andreas says.

Owners Patrick and Judith Gunadi, who love food and alcohol both, came up with the idea of the restaurant.

They were inspired by the use of alcohol in dishes in countries like Australia, England, France and Italy, where alcohol is used as an ingredient to add spice and flavor.

The restaurant'€™s dishes are infused with beer, whiskey, rum, vodka, tequila, champagne or gin, among other beverages.

Among the various menu, the restaurant specialties are Beer Can Chicken and Jack Daniel'€™s Baby Back Ribs.

The Beer Can Chicken is made by flavoring the skin of a whole chicken with spices and herbs and inserting an open can of beer into its butt as it is grilled for around one-and-a-half hours.

Guinness mini burgers.The resulting dish is tender and juicy with a savory and crisp skin.

The juice oozing from the chicken during the grilling is also collected and is made into a sauce. It is served with an interesting presentation, with the whole chicken still sitting on its beer can perch with an aromatic steam.

It is a very tasty meal that goes along well with beer. Due to its long preparation time, pre-ordering is suggested for the Rp 198,000 (US$20) dish.

The Jack Daniel'€™s Baby Back Ribs offers a rack of barbecued baby back ribs brushed with a black, sweet and salty glaze containing the whiskey. It comes to the table glistening and inviting to be eaten with bare hands, promising a finger-licking ending for Rp 258,000.

Other favorite menu items include Drunken Steaks, Beer Dough Pizza, Guinness Mini Burgers, and Margarita Chicken Wings.

From the bar, the restaurant offer its signature beer cocktails, a vast selection of Margaritas such as a Dragonfruit Margarita, a French Margarita and a Straw-beer-rita, and martini cocktails like Aquamarine, a bubble gum martini and a Lotus Martini, as well as various selection of beers and liquors.

Alcoholics Bar & Grill
Jl. Kemang Raya 72N, South Jakarta
021 7195675
alcoholicsbar.com
Opens 4 p.m. to midnight from Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends.

'€” Photos Courtesy of '€œAlcoholics Bar & Grill