Is being a bartender the same as being a rock star? Kiki Moka seems to think so — his answer is a confident and reverberating, "Yes!"

"Our cocktail list is our song list," the 44-year-old bartender told The Jakarta Post on March 11. "Some 'songs' are awesome and the others are just okay. Some can be pulled off while others just can't. Everyone in the bar is the 'soundman', helping you 'perform'. The bartender is the rock star," he continued in delight.

Kiki's words did not necessarily stem from his love for rock-and-roll music. After more than 20 years of being a bartender and a cocktail master — including, at one point, representing Indonesia in an international bartender competition — Kiki has learned that a properly concocted glass of liquor can enkindle a euphoric sensation for its drinker not unlike enjoying the front seat at a Guns N' Roses concert. His quirky perspective on his profession is also the key factor that allowed him to become one of the best mixologists in Jakarta.

"Younger bartenders usually think that to make a cocktail, the concoction has to be as complex as possible and the mixing has to be as cool-looking as possible. The way I see it, though, some 'songs' can be simple, but those are the ones that stick with you for a very long time," he gushed.

Cocktail by Cruise

Born and raised in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Kiki revealed that as a teenager, he aspired to be an actual rock star. For better or worse, however, the young Kiki soon realized that being a professional musician would not necessarily lead to financial stability. "My band back in high school won lots of prizes in festivals, but as we continued doing our gigs, I was like, 'Where's the money?' At one point we got paid with nasi goreng [fried rice]," he looked back.

When one door closes, another opens — in Kiki's case, that door was opened by the American film star Tom Cruise. Once upon a time, the 1988 film Cocktail popped up on Kiki's television screen, in which Cruise starred as a bartender taking a job in Jamaica to open his dream bar. Seeing the film star doing flair bartending — an act of manipulation of bar tools for the purpose of entertaining customers — opened up a whole new vista for the young and impressionable Kiki.

"I saw him [in that film] and I was like, 'Whoa, being a bartender seems exciting!' That, and also, he's got a lot of ladies!" Kiki said, laughing.

After graduating high school, Kiki decided to take up his aunt's offer to move to Jakarta and work at Café Batavia. Established in 1991, Café Batavia occupies a building formerly used as The Dutch East India Company's administrative office during the late 1800s. In 1996, Café Batavia received recognition as The World's Best Bar from Newsweek International magazine. The following year, Kiki started his first day working at Café Batavia.

"That was the coolest bar ever, I think, in that era," Kiki remarked.

A reality check soon kicked in. With no prior work experience, Kiki had to start from the bottom, by serving as a barback. "In the bartending world, that is the lowest position ever," he explained. "The job entailed washing dishes and prepping the bar. It was basically torturing." Making his work even tougher, his bartender seniors did not hold back when it came to mentoring the then-aspiring bartender. "You could hear some 'animal language' [from the bartenders] whenever you're being a slowpoke," he continued.

In retrospect, Kiki felt grateful for the tough times he experienced as a barback, considering how it prepared him to deal with all kinds of complications. In the 90s, Café Batavia was one of the most popular tourist spots in Jakarta, which meant, at the time, there was no such thing as a slow day. "Four or five tour buses would stop by Café Batavia. Just imagine how many customers I had to deal with," Kiki quipped.

Furthermore, his experience working at Café Batavia also taught Kiki what he labeled as "the most upsetting thing" that could ever happen in a bar.

"It's when a whole group of customers shows up, but afterward, they want to split the bills," he chuckled.

Bars and wars

Kiki found his shot at being a proper bartender when one of his bartender seniors at Café Batavia decided to open a new bar and offered him a chance to join him. Observing how "competitive" the bartenders were at Café Batavia, Kiki decided to take up the offer. The new bar, which is now defunct, was called Lamborghini Cafe and situated at Taman Ria Senayan, Jakarta.

Kiki's job interview at Lamborghini Cafe proved to be one of the most memorable experiences in his life — for a very glum reason. Once he wrapped up the interview, he noticed how the television screens at the bar showed breaking news of a riot nearby — a violent incident that is now known as the Trisakti Shootings 1998.

"Things turned to chaos immediately," he described. "I couldn't go home after the interview. I stayed at the Lamborghini Cafe for three days."

A month later, Lamborghini Cafe opened its doors and Kiki started his new job as a bartender. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be in the mood for a gin and tonic. "No customers showed up at the bar. It was dead silence," he chuckled. "Worst first day ever!"

Life goes on, and so did Kiki and his journey as a bartender. In 2008, he was recruited to serve as a bartender at LOEWY, a classic bar and bistro located in Oakwood Premier Cozmo in Jakarta and one of the flagship establishments of The Union Group. His bartending and mixology skills had grown considerably sharper to the point at which in 2011, he was selected as Indonesia's representative at the Diageo Reserve World Class Bartender of the Year competition in New Delhi, India. Even though it was a competition, victory was never his top priority.

"What I had in mind was my desire to 'steal' the knowledge of my fellow competitors that I would bring to my home country," he reminisced.

LOEWY was also the place where Kiki concocted his first original cocktail recipe, the Cotton Candy Cosmopolitan, which is a "twist" on the classic cocktail the Cosmopolitan. The inspiration came from two very simple, very unexpected muses: his daughter's love for cotton candy and the film version of the American television series Sex and the City.

"All cocktails use sugar, so why don't I use cotton candy as the sugar base for a cocktail?" he mused. The result is a "cute" glass of cotton candy floating on top of a liquid mix of vodka, Cointreau and cranberry juice.

Cheers to the future

Since late 2021, Kiki has been busy serving as a bartender and a stakeholder at The Cocktail Club, another establishment under the banner of The Union Group. Besides concocting more new recipes, Kiki is also determined to pass the knowledge he has obtained during the past 20 years as a bartender and mixologist to his budding trainees.

Ronny Holicka, one of the bartenders at The Cocktail Club and Kiki's trainee, thinks highly of his mentor. "For me, he's the one who started this [bartender] culture. He's the one who brought passion into this profession. As a result, most of us take pride in this job. This is not just something we do for a living."

Even as one of the most experienced bar veterans in the game, there are still bigger goals that Kiki Moka hopes to achieve someday. His biggest one: to launch a major-scale cocktail festival in Bali. "There has never been a cocktail festival that takes place in a tropical city; it has always been in an urban city. So I think that would be very interesting," says Kiki with delight.

What kind of “cocktail festival” does Kiki have in mind? Turns out, he already has a pretty specific picture.

"I imagine there will be a boxing ring on top of a swimming pool. Two bartenders will enter the ring, representing their countries as their national anthems crescendo. Then, they must concoct the drink by wearing boxing gloves!"

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