Bali Kitchen, officially closing today, will do a weekend service through August

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

Bali Kitchen is having its last official day of service today here at 128 E. Fourth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (Chef/owner Jazz Pasay recommends you that order online ahead of time.)

The penultimate day found the chef and his husband, David Prettyman, in the weeds with long lines of people waiting to get a last bowl of gado-gado or nasi goreng.



As previously reported, the Indonesian restaurant is closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I asked Jazz and David about the situation and their future plans.


[Jazz & David]

Jazz says that "a large percentage of our business is catering for offices, hundreds of people for lunches and events, and since the offices are closed [due to COVID-19] there is no work. Also, there are no tourists — we get a lot of Indonesian tourists, and international students, and so business has dried up."

There is some hope though if you can’t make it in today for a meal, as Jazz is creating a limited-menu weekend run, just for August (the lease is up at the end of this month). Bali Kitchen will be open Saturdays and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a new weekly menu.

Also in the works: a potential pop-up restaurant concept focusing on seafood with Essex Market’s Marketline-based southeast Asian dessert stall Moon Man and Sea Monster Indonesian grilled seafood pop-up partner Nigel Sielegar.


[Jazz and Sielegar]

Both Jazz and Nigel talked with me about the importance of raising awareness about Indonesian food and culture, and speculated about why Indonesian food isn’t widely known.


[Jazz with neighbor Lek of Lui’s Thai Food]

In the interim, Jazz and David plan to keep the catering business open and have also been tossing around the idea of mobile food delivery. You can keep tabs on what Bali Kitchen is up to on Instagram.



Previously on EV Grieve:
• A visit to Bali Kitchen on 4th Street