New Indonesian Café and Apparel Store to Open in Court Square Next Month

A new business is opening next month in Long Island City that will offer Indonesian beverages and clothes. The establishment is opening at 45-02 23rd St. (Photo by Michael Dorgan, Queens Post)

May 18, 2022 By Michael Dorgan

A new business is opening in Long Island City that will merge two concepts–Indonesian beverages and Indonesian style clothing.

The new establishment, which will be called Café Dangdut, will open next month at 45-02 23rd St. in the Court Square section of the neighborhood.

The owners are taking over the front area of where The Inkan, a Peruvian restaurant, is currently located. The Peruvian restaurant will remain in business– but will be operating out of a smaller space to the rear of its current location that runs along 45^th Avenue.

Café Dangdut will offer Indonesian-styled beverages such as kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, according to Dima Fatima, who co-owns the establishment and is originally from Indonesia. The establishment will also offer regular hot and cold coffees such as cappuccinos, Americanos and lattes with its beans imported from Indonesia.

Café Dangdut will also offer a range of food items on its menu – all of which will be vegan – including layer cake and other small bites.

Fatima, who is known to her friends as Eski, said the business will also have a range of Indonesian-made apparel for sale. The items, she said, are made using a technique known as batik where the garments are decorated using wax and dye.

“I love my country and we feel the world needs to know about Indonesian fashion and coffee,” said Fatima, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2019.

Fatima is a professional fashion stylist by trade, and she has been coming to the Big Apple since 2015 to attend New York Fashion Week.

Co-owners Fitri Carlina (L) and Dima Fatima (R) inside Café Dangdut (Photo: Instagram)

Fatima, who lives in Brooklyn, was a stylist for Indonesian celebrity Fitri Carlina. She is partnering with Carlina and has teamed up with Romy Sembiring, who is also from Indonesia, to open Café Dangdut.

The term Dangdut, refers to a genre of Indonesian dance and folk popular music.

Fatima said there are about 12 seats inside and they will be placing three small tables on the sidewalk along 45^th Avenue.

They also plan to transform an adjacent outdoor parking area into a market during the weekend summer months. Fatima said there is room for about six different vendors at the space and they will be teaming up with pop-up market operators Smorgasburg to run the events.

Café Dangdut will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Sundays.

“This will be a unique experience, I can’t wait for people to try our coffee,” Fatima said.