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Glass House Offers a Drinking Joint With Speak-easy Ambience.

Text: Tara Marchelin; Photo: Gugun A. Suminarto

If you are seeking for a place where you can hang out with friends and have a great drink, yet has the intimate atmosphere, Glass House might suit your taste. Located in Dharmawangsa, Glass House is a drinking joint on the rooftop of Eastern Opulence with strong speak-easy ambience. The rustic and vintage interior, that is dominated with black, dark green, and brown colours enhance the intimate and private concept of Glass House.

Open at 7 pm, Glass House serves various kinds of food and drink. When you are looking at the menu, you will find that Glass House has similar dishes as its predecessor, Eastern Opulence. Nevertheless, the bar gives a different touch by adding some Asian cuisines to the menu, such as Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, and improving the taste. Unlike Eastern Opulence whose dishes are served in big portion, the bar prefers to make it in a smaller portion, so guests can enjoy the dish just for themselves. One of Glass House’s signature dishes is Mayo Crispy Spicy Chicken Skin. The combination of perfectly crispy fried chicken skin and Glass House’s secret recipe seasoning deliver a tasteful appetizer that you can never get enough. Just take a piece of the chicken skin, dip it to mayo sauce, and feel the tasteful chicken skin and creamy mayonnaise complete each other in your mouth.

As the main course, the bar has Thai Crispy Chicken Fragrant Rice which is a fried fillet chicken breast served along with green rice and Vietnam sauce. The fried fillet chicken breast has a tender and crispy texture, also tastes unique since the chicken is battered with coconut milk coating before it’s fried. Meanwhile, the rice is cooked with pandan leaf, which gives fragrance and soft green colour to the rice, and mixed with butter to add more flavours. Last but not least, a little bit sour and fresh Vietnam sauce brings contrast taste yet perfectly blends with the dish.

Aburi Garlic Butter Gyu Tongue is also a must-try dish at Glass House. It is a smoked gyu tongue which grilled and topped with a mixture of chopped garlic and butter. A portion of Aburi Garlic Butter Gyu Tongue consists of three skewers and each has three pieces of tongue. Before you enjoy the dish, the tongue. needs to be torched until the garlic-butter topping turns into little bit browny and melted and, surely, awakens the appetite as you smell the aroma. The savoury taste from garlic-butter topping balances the strong smoky taste of gyu tongue. Different from any other tongue-based dish which usually has a chewy texture, Aburi Garlic Butter Gyu Tongue is super tender and melts easily in the mouth that is the result from 12 hours smoked process.

As a bar, Glass House provides various kind of drinks, from the finest whisky brands such as Macallan, Martell, and Hennessy, to the refreshing cocktails. When The Peak visited Glass House, the bartender served a classic, sweet, and fruity cocktail named Cosmopolitan which made from vodka, triple sec, grenadine, lime juice, and a piece of cherry. Glass House also has three cocktails that influenced by Indonesia’s authentic drinks: Martini Mbok Jamu which made from temulawak herb, beras kencur, gin, and amaretto; Martini Wedang Jahe which made from arak Bali, vodka, home made wedang jahe, and palm sugar; and Wangi-Wangi Pandan which made from vodka, gin, arak Bali, melon liqueur, and pandan. As for those who seek for a stronger drink can try Highball which made from single malt scotch whiskey, soda, and slices of lime.