Bali to tutor bogans as Bondi barons move in to spice up eating and night life
BALI plans to tutor bogans as a crew of Bondi bar barons spice up the isle’s eating and night life.
MORE often than not, Bali gets a pretty bad rap.
Bogans, braids and dubious behaviour seem be the media mainstay — What Really Happens in Bali, anyone?
Enter, Aussies with a style mission: Bondi bar barons taking the bogan out of Bali.
We’ve been bombarded with images of ferals, tragic surfing incidents, motorbike calamities and, dare we say, the occasional drug bust over the years (not exactly the way to entice people wanting a pleasant stay in the sun, near the sand and with cocktail on hand).
So what’s changing?
There are hundreds of private “villas” that some holiday-makers stay in in Bali, but it’s hotel land and fine dining that has become a fresh new frontier.
Kadek Wiranatha is one of Bali’s “hospitality” kings and is responsible for creating the likes of Ku De Ta, Chez GadoGado, Cocoon Restaurant and Beach Club.
Now, he has spearheaded the up-market revamp of the one-time Double-Six and turned into Double-Six Luxury Hotel. And he’s brought Aussie dining name Robert Marchetti — of Bondi Icebergs, North Bondi Italian and QT restaurant fame — into his hospitality equation.
His job? “Creative director” of all food and beverages at the one time pumping nightclub turned glam hotel, Double-Six.
With over one million Aussies travelling to Bali each year and as rice paddies turn into retail precincts, new bars are popping up every week.
“We are making the whole place elegant but not snobby at all,’’ says Marchetti.
“Basically the whole place is a huge entertainment complex, with some pretty fab rooms attached.’’ he laughs.
The Double-Six Luxury Hotel (yes, it’s a mouthful) is an all-suites, beachside inn with 146 rooms and penthouses all up. The hotel is also pitching its “unique spa” as well as five contemporary food and beverage venues.
The hotel is across the road from the madness of Bali beaches and just down the road from the frantic pace, overpowering aromas and horrendous traffic of Seminyak, Legian and Kuta.
But once inside the hotel, it’s like you’ve hit an inner city paradise and once there, you really don’t want to get out.
And that’s the hotel’s modus operandi.
“We want the place to be an oasis with a whole lot of different areas to choose from, from bars, to the spa to relaxed eating and smart eating and one mighty extraordinary rooftop bar,’’ says Marchetti.
His staff are dressed in pieces from an Indonesian haute couture designer, Chosy Latu. The designer has also bought Marchetti’s “theatrical” concepts to life with bespoke uniform designs for each facet of each restaurant.
“We really east to create an excitement about coming here, with girls in costumes, staff greeting you in the cars in feathers and making it pure, ornate fun.’’
So far, Marchetti has already opened Seminyak Italian Food, and the Double-Six Rooftop while
The Plantation Grill and Sling Bar - also on the Rooftop - sits 15m above sea level, with views over Seminyak’s Double Six Beach.
Covering over 170 square metres, it is one of the world’s largest rooftop venues. The whole area also features ‘floating pods’ or private sunken conversation pits that look out to the Bali seaside.
Marchetti is also working on The Plantation Grill — a twenties-style, Great Gatsby-style bar space with marble finishes, a vaulted double-height ceiling and huge glass windows looking out to the sea. It will specialise in dry aged meat and line-caught seafood cooked over custom made open grills and wood-fired ovens.
But what about the girlie holiday bits? Like the all-important spa?
Well, the AcquaPerla Spa has one of the most unique treatments I’ve ever encountered.
Called the Sensorial Hydro Trail, it’s a progressive ‘treatment’ that takes you through several water treatments (or is that tortures?) from having ice scrubbed all over your body to water jets spurted near all your orifices to having buckets of iced water poured over you. (And yes, this was well before the ASL Ice Bucket Challenge started.)
I loved it. Others in the media posse? Not so enamoured.
While Marchetti is working on his Bali oasis, another leading Bondi restaurateur, Maurice Terzini (and a former business partner of Marchetti) will open the Icebergs Beach Club with plans for his to open next year, at the Sea Sentosa Resort at Echo Beach.
The project is a collaboration between magazine publisher Deke Miskin and Terzini and will be built on the international reputation of Bondi Icebergs.
“Icebergs has a very special and unique audience, where global superstars hang with local surfers to create a dynamic that is unique,” Ian Duffell, founder of Sentosa Worldwide Resorts told www.youonlyliveonce.com.
The concept for Icebergs Canggu will have Terzini and his team draw inspiration from the iconic photography of Slim Aarrons from the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Terzini has partnered with Claudio Lazzarini and Carl Pickering at Lazzarini Pickering Architetti in Rome, who, in addition to award-winning work on the design of Icebergs Dining Room and Bar in Bondi, count Fendi and Burberry among their clients.
“Maurice is a master at creating an environment and experience that is incomparable to any other in the world,” said business partner Deke Miskin.
So as the Bondi bar barons hit Bali, competition will be fierce and but of the numbers of Aussies still going to Bali continue to climb, they’ll all be laughing.
Follow Melissa on Instagram and Twitter @melissahoyer
*Melissa Hoyer was a guest of Double-Six Luxury Hotel www.double-six.com and Garuda Indonesia
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