Klub Kembali - Love Always Wins

Love Always Wins

In a world moving faster than ever – and becoming more and more polarized with each passing day – let’s explore a healing way to deal with it all: love and kindness. Instead of focusing on the big fireworks kind of love, I’m talking about the deeper emotions that emerge, regardless of a situation. Like the friends who are there for you when you need them, neighbors who offer a helping hand, partners who can just sit with you in silence, or lend an ear if you need to talk. At a bar like Klub Kembali, love and kindness can also show up as a bartender who remembers your name and welcomes you back, or a small gesture from a stranger that says, “Hello, I see you.” People from all over the world come here to decompress, to celebrate, to escape or to even simply exist for a while. Simple gestures of love can make us feel whole, even when the world seems against us; it’s the most human element of connection and it shows up in amazing places.

Stammtisch of “Love”

Case in point, in honor of the 75th anniversary of Swiss and Indonesian relations (another form of “love and kindness,” if you will) Klub Kembali has a 2026 “Aprés Beach” menu honoring Swiss traditions. One of these traditions in Swiss (and German) bars, is the long-standing heritage of a “Stammtisch” – a “regulars table” reserved for the locals, where they sit, enjoy a drink and connect about what’s going on in life. Now, if you told the people who typically sit at a Stammtisch that what they’re doing is an expression of love, you’d probably be met with a lot of rolling eyes. But still, it is. At its core, a Stammtisch is about listening to one another, laughing at each other’s jokes (even if you’ve heard them a thousand times) and simply being there for each other. It’s a sense of togetherness that makes us feel warm and fuzzy, feel accepted, and yes, feel loved.

Here in Lombok, we have a few versions of a Stammtisch. At Klub Kembali in Selong Belanak, we usually have a long table set up on Wednesday nights, where regulars meet and listen to live music, and often make new friends via a rousing sing-along that invariably happens by the end of the night. Beyond the Klub, a group of German-speaking expats who live in South Lombok, recently started a monthly Stammtisch, held at different venues, for no other reason than to meet, raise a glass and chat about everything and nothing – in German of course. Across other watering holes in Kuta and further north to Senggigi, you’ll also find weekly traditions that bring together friends, old and new, to their same, favorite haunts and their same, favorite tables week after week.

All Are Welcome

As a bar owner in paradise, I’m proud to provide a space for expressions of kindness and love, a space for happy memories with family and friends; it gives me so much joy when I see a full house of people talking, connecting – or singing! It’s what propels me to make our place the most warm, welcoming and loving it can be. And, in this spirit, a place where we can raise a glass to the stubbornly hopeful force that is love. It may challenge us, it may require patience, but in the end, it always wins. Love wins because it stands firm where cynicism walks away, because it forgives in the face of pride, because it builds bridges instead of boundaries and, most of all, because it turns ordinary moments into something worth remembering. When we choose to be brave, to listen, and to connect, that’s when love persists. Even if the guys at the Stammtisch roll their teary eyes at us, we’re all in this together, bound by the oldest and most reliable essence we know: love. And in today’s world, that’s something to raise a toast to.

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Swiss Manhattan

What says love more than great chocolate? Of course, I am partial to Swiss chocolate and, as we celebrate the connection between Switzerland and Indonesia over the past 75 years, I’d like to share this month’s cocktail recipe for our Swiss Manhattan. Indonesian spirit, Lombok cocoa and Swiss chocolate make for an amazing combination. Enjoy!

Cocktail Recipe

1. Fill mixing glass with:
   • 2 oz Cocoa Butter Rum (see recipe below)
   • 3/4 oz Martini Rosso
   • 2 dashes Angostura Bitter
   • 2 drops saline solution
   • Ice cubes
2. Stir for 30 seconds
3. Double strain into Lowball Glass with big ice cube
4. Garnish with chocolate covered black cherry

Cocoa Butter Rum

• Combine 700 ml of Indonesian Manta Dark
• Rum with 75 g of Lombok cocoa butter
• Infuse for one to two weeks
• Try every couple of days until you get a rum with a velvety chocolate flavor that suits your taste
• Put in the freezer overnight (the cocoa butter will freeze, the rum will stay liquid)
• Strain and bottle

Additional Notes

• If you can’t get Manta Dark Rum, use your favorite dark rum. My personal favorite imported rum is Havana Club 7.
• The saline solution we use is 25%, meaning you dissolve 25 g of salt in 100 ml water. To make, gently heat until all the salt is dissolved, then cool & bottle into a dropper.
• To make chocolate covered cherries, gently melt 50 g of Swiss chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler. Using a toothpick, dip black cherries into the chocolate and then put on a plate with baking paper. Rest in the fridge for a couple of hours until the chocolate is solid.
• If you have leftover cocoa butter from the rum, you can use it in any baking recipes requiring dairy butter as a 1:1 vegan substitute.