IO – Hanging out in angkringan with friends or family while enjoying tradi- tional food is fun. Bringing the angk- ringan concept which serves a menu of traditional food such as ‘Nasi Kucing’, Nasi Gajah offers a menu of tradition- al food in jumbo portions, hence the name Nasi ‘Gajah’ which translates as Elephant Rice.
Other than the large portions, un- like other ‘Nasi Kucing’ angkringan which are usually located in roadside tents, Nasi Gajah serves its traditional menu in a restaurant. “We went from the traditional concept of angkringa, then we upgraded to be more modern and creative. I want to brand Nasi Ga- jah as ‘traditional fast food’,” said Adi Wibowo, the owner of Nasi Gajah.
Starting from the concept, Nasi Ga- jah serves a traditional menu with a better concept. The packaging is nicer and well-crafted, as well as the food, in which the looks are upgraded to be better, cleaner, and tastier.
Nasi Gajah Restaurant has an in- dustrial nuance with a pavilion floor so it doesn’t give a ‘wow’ or expensive impression. The front of the restaurant is left open, with only a trellis covered in green trees. At the front, planted hy- droponic vegetables in pipes.
Adi first opened a Nasi Gajah busi- ness in Semarang, Central Java in 2016. At that time he was still studying at Diponegoro University, Semarang, majoring in Business Administration so he wanted to be entrepreneurial and benefit the people around him. Initially, Adi opened a coffee shop on Jalan Raya Bandasari, Semarang, which was later rebranded as Nasi Gajah.
Two years later, after completing his bachelor’s degree, Adi opened Warung Nasi Gajah in Magelang, Cen- tral Java, his birthplace. Three months after that, the man who was born on September 5, 1995, opened Warung Nasi Gajah in Depok, to be precise in November 2019, on Jalan Ridwan Rais, Kavling, Beji Timur Depok. Adi chose a location around the housing subdivision because he had a former food court there.
Menu
Nasi Gajah targets families, stu- dents, and office workers. For this rea- son, Nasi Gajah serves healthy menus without MSG (monosodium glutamate) and prioritizes organic menus, such as vegetables. Therefore, Nasi Gajah also develops hydroponic vegetables such as kale and spinach which they can use.
Favorite menus at Nasi Gajah are Ayam Sambal Matah, Ayam Ungkep and Ayam Taliwang. Other chicken menus are Ayam Lombok Ijo, Ayam Keriting, and Chicken Fillet. Nasi Ga- jah also provides Stir-Squid and Flour Squid menus.
Nasi Gajah serves Chicken Rice Bowl menus such as Ayam Sambal Matah, Chicken Curry Soup, Ayam GorengLombokIjoFriedChickenand Ayam Rica-rica. In addition, there are Seafood Rice Bowl menus such as CumiSausPadang,CumiPetaiPedas, Udang Saus Padang, and UdangSaus Tiram.
There are also package menus such as Super Ngirit which consists of rice, special omelet, chili sauce, vege- tables, and fresh iced tea. The Baper menu consists of chicken/squid rice, chili sauce, vegetables, and fresh iced tea. The Anti-Galau Menu consists of 2 Baper and a special omelet. Then there is the Fried Rice package with fresh tea and crackers and the Fried Noodle package with fresh tea and crackers.
Nasi Gajah also provides a lamin- ute menu such as omelet, fried egg, fried egg, fried chicken, ungkep chick- en, and galangal fried chicken. The choices of chili sauce are quite diverse, namely chili onion, chili sauce, chili paste, green chili sauce, and sambal dabu-dabu.
As for snacks, Nasi Gajah serves traditional menus such as TahuIsi, TahuBego,KentangGoreng,Cireng Kosan, Tempe Mendua/Tempe Tepung, RisolGajah,AyamKampus,Seb- lakTulangPedas,PisangBakardan PisangGoreng. Nasi Gajah also serves desserts such as Strawberry Dessert, Mango Dessert, Banana Dragon and Fruit Salad.
For the drink menu, Adi said that Nasi Gajah’s favorite is KopiSusuGa- jah, which is a blend of coffee and Milo. The coffee used is house-blend from several regions which is processed into one, obtained from suppliers, and cooperating with the roastery.
Other milk coffee menus are Kop- suOriginal,KopsuGulaAren,Kopsu Peradaban, and Kopsu Madu. Espres- so-based drinks consist of Espresso, Americano, Latte, Cappuccino, Black
Forest, Redpresso, and Matchapresso. For manual brews, Vietnam Drip and V60.
“I mix these menus myself because I happened to be a barista when I was in Semarang. I also do business in the field of digital marketing as a consul- tant who has handled coffee shops, so I have many menu choices,” Adi con- veyed.
For those who don’t like coffee drinks, Nasi Gajah provides oth- er drink options. For Milky Shaky menus such as Red Velvet, Matcha, Chocolate, and Milo Gajah. Nasi Ga- jah also serves juice drinks such as Melon Juice, Pineapple, Dragon Fruit, Watermelon, Mango, Strawberry, and Smoothies Banana Oreo and Straw- berry Yogurt.
Can Be Used As A Seminar Place
Nasi Gajah is large enough to ac- commodate more than 100 visitors. Nasi Gajah also offers meeting rooms and co-working spaces. This meeting room can accommodate 20 people when sitting on a bench and 45 people when sitting on the floor.
The Nasi Gajah front lobby room is also often used as a seminar venue for students or the community, which can accommodate 70 people. Several student organizations such as BEM UI and PNJ held seminars at Nasi Gajah before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For activities, we do not charge fees for the use of the premises, we only provide a minimum order package, so they pay per meal,” added Adi.
Nasi Gajah is usually crowded with visitors from 17.00 to 22.00 WIB During the day, there are more take- away orders. During the Covid-19 pandemic and the new normal, Nasi Gajah also provides an “eat at home” program, providing frozen side dishes that can be sent out of town. Also, Nasi Gajah collaborates with GrabFood, GoFood, and Shopee. Nasi Gajah sus- tains a partnership with Continuous Message for frozen food delivery orders. To introduce Nasi Gajah, before the pandemic, Nasi Gajah held donation activities for the social community. Also, it provides a 50 percent discount if the social community holds an event at Nasi Gajah. Nasi Gajah also held do- nations to mosque youth and orphans so that the community could feel its impact.
Open Outlet
Shortly, Nasi Gajah plans to open an outlet in Grand Galaxy, Bekasi, West Java. “We pick up the ball in housing and offices, by making con- tainer outlets,” Adi hoped.
Nasi Gajah plans to open five branches soon. According to Adi, Nasi Gajah Depok is the main store because it has the most extensive restaurant, and later other branches will be small outlets using red containers, typical of Nasi Gajah.
For this reason, Nasi Gajah offers partnerships for partners who want to grow together and get benefits to- gether. In this partnership, Nasi Gajah will only take a profit of 7.5 percent of the revenue and the rest will be for the profit of the partner.
In the future, Nasi Gajah has the ultimate goal of being able to develop businesses abroad. According to Adi, if fast food like KFC and McD can suc- ceed, why can’t Indonesia with a tradi- tional menu? (Kartika Indah)