John Coltrane · Impulse! 1965
A Love Supreme
A prayer cut into four sides. Trane reaches for something the kopi cannot quite name.
The building was a Dutch trader's residence — built 1908, abandoned in '49, used as a tailor shop, then a photo studio, then nothing. We took the keys in 2019 and kept everything we could: the teak floorboards, the kitchen tiles, the wide green shutters that still warp in the rains.
The name comes from a tin we found wedged behind a beam upstairs. Tjap Goenoeng — Mountain Brand — a coffee roastery from Salatiga that closed sometime in the 1950s. We don't sell their beans. We just keep the tin behind the bar.
The music is what holds the room together. Quartet Trijaya started a Wednesday jam in our second month and never left. Sundays we put the band away and run the wax. Until 1am, every night except Mondays.