It’s out with the wood-fired oven, in with the grill.
Once home to Neapolitan pizzeria Bufad, the corner of 13th and Spring Garden is days away from relaunching as Indonesian restaurant Satay Bistro.
The change comes courtesy of husband-and-wife team Indra Cipto and Fenty Triany, both 40. The drive, they explained to Billy Penn, is a desire to bring the cuisine they grew up with to a wider audience; one not centered around South Philly where most of the city’s Indonesian restaurants are.
“[People] only know Bali, they know Borneo,” Triany argued. “They know Java coffee, but they don’t know where Java is.”
To help rectify that, the couple has come up with a menu that’s a greatest hits of sorts, of traditional recipes as well as their own personal favorites. The setup aims to be as accessible as possible. At the counter, customers build their own rice platters with a selection of proteins and veggies. There’ll be rotations, Triany said, particularly around the varieties of fried chicken available, but staples include vegan curries and capcay — a vegetable stir fry — as well as chicken and lamb curries, beef rendang, red chili beef, and black ink squid. It’s $2 for a rice base ($3 for yellow), with additional items ranging from $4 to $7 each.
And, of course, plenty of satay. The grilled meats are served in orders of five skewers and are available in as many varieties — chicken, lamb, pork, beef, and minced chicken — plus a vegan tempeh option ($12-$15). Each comes with a side of rice or rice cake, and housemade peanut sauce.
On the beverage list, smoothies, a trio of shaved ices, Indonesian tea, and happy soda — a combination of coco panda syrup, condensed milk, and sparkling mineral water.
Cipto and Triany are aiming to keep their flavors and cooking methods as authentic as possible but admit to making one concession for American palettes which they believe aren’t as accustomed to Indonesian cuisine levels of spice.
““Our spicy is spicy,” Triany said. “Even when we’re sweating, we’re still eating it.”
Satay Bistro customers will be able to request extra chili on the side, but most of the recipes will be toned down from their original renditions.
Labor is evenly split, from kitchen duties — “she’s better at cooking, I’m better at cutting the meat and grilling,” Cipto said — to managing the business, although Triany is mostly solely responsible for handling their social media accounts.
Hailing from different parts of Indonesia — Cipto is from Jakarta, Triany from Sulawesi across the archipelago, but both lived on main island Java for a while — the two first met in Philly in 2005, as employees of the same paper factory.
They left the city for Chicago, where they worked as servers in a Japanese restaurant, and then to New York, which quickly proved too expensive. Returning to Philly in 2010, the pair decided to strike out on their own, setting up a deli in Center City. Soon after, they opened New York Bagel Cafe and Deli on City Ave. in Bala Cynwyd, followed by a second location at 1120 Buttonwood.
The Center City deli and Bala Cynwyd spot both closed during the pandemic, but the Buttonwood location remains. It’s located two blocks southeast from Satay Bistro and next door to the real estate agent who proved pivotal in finding their restaurant’s location. A regular of their cafe who knew of the couple’s desire to expand, he introduced them to their eventual landlord, whose parents had operated a Chinese takeout restaurant out of the corner space long before it had become Bufad.
Besides removing the wood-fired oven, the refurbishment has been minimal. “They did a pretty good job decorating,” Cipto said of the space’s previous tenants, noting the high adaptability of the “rustic look,” the charred-wood counters and furnishings of the 25-seat restaurant. New flourishes include wall-mounted wooden masks and shadow puppets and, soon, curtains for the windows, once the batik arrives as part of a shipment from Indonesia, along with a specific type of black tea, which the couple is waiting for.
Either way, they plan to open this Saturday, following the last few training sessions for their staff and hosting a final tasting for “my colleagues and friends; they’re foodies,” Triany said, “So I need their feedback.”
1240 Spring Garden St. | 12 to 8 p.m., everyday | BYOB | $2-$15 | Pick up & delivery available | 717-918-2161
