KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — “Dreams come… if you believe in them enough.”
This sounds like a line from a movie, but it’s what one intrepid café owner has shared with me, ostensibly about his motivation but equally applicable to the dreamy ambience of his creation.
Midsummer Night is an almost hidden café in Taman OUG, off Old Klang Road. More than simply serving coffee and pretty cakes, the café delights the senses with its DIY décor, creative atmosphere, and a surprise dish that just appeared on the menu.
It’s an adventure to uncover it yourself. Though the café is facing the main road (it’s along the same row as MyBurgerLab OUG), you’ll likely miss it unless you’re looking hard. Located on the second floor of a shophouse above a car workshop, the area seems unpromising. One is more likely to come here to service their vehicle than for an evening brew.
Yes, an evening brew — for Midsummer Night only opens at 7pm on weeknights and 3pm on weekends. The reason for this is adorably mundane: the owner, Jon Dep (his real name and no relation to Johnny Depp), is a lecturer at a local college during the day so weekday evenings and weekends are his only free hours.
And he has chosen to invest those extra hours into a passion project like none other. Enter and be enveloped by one man’s wonderland filled with movie magic and artistic vibes. The former comes from a feature wall of film posters that are updated every couple of months. Right now the theme is Hong Kong comedy flicks so expect to see plenty of Stephen Chow grinning maniacally back at you.
The tables and chairs are made from recycled wood and have a primary classroom feel to them (albeit lots cleaner and free of correction fluid graffiti). There is also a hidden “art room” where easels are set up for customers to paint and draw. Dep says, “I believe in a creative space that everyone can take part in.”
Creativity runs deep in Dep’s veins. A graduate in advertising, he has been in that industry, as well as an art teacher and an editor at an entertainment magazine. He’s also well-versed in food photography. Since 1997, he has written movie reviews for various magazines. “They are more like opinion pieces and essays than critical reviews,” he says.
Dep first heard the calling of specialty coffee 20 years ago. “When I first graduated, I worked for six months at Be My Friend, a café that used to be in Central Market. Even back then, they had siphon coffee, something that’s still not that common now. I fell in love with the entire coffee and café culture then.”
The affable Jack-of-all-trades has been involved in many industries since then but he had always wanted to return to the café business. He feels that the right motivation is important though, especially in this day and age when every Tom, Dick and Harry is opening an indie café just because they can.
“If you only like coffee, there’s no need to open a café — you can just visit cafés and enjoy cups brewed by different baristas,” says Dep. “I felt I was ready to open a café because I also like washing dishes and sweeping the floors! You have to be willing to do the boring stuff too. Also, I’m an introvert, so talking to customers is a good way to bring me out of my shell.”
Dep used to be so shy he’d run away from old schoolmates if he saw them in shopping malls. These days, he’s a confident and charming café owner who takes the time to find out what his customers prefer for their brews.
“I have to be honest; I’m a complete beginner at coffee,” he says. “I only started picking up hand-brewing coffee from my barista friend Tan Mei Ying six months ago. I had to learn how to use a V60 brewer and I have a long way to go. Often my customers have much to teach me, as they’ve been around the world drinking all sorts of coffee!”
Midsummer Night offers beverages with endearing names such as ‘Dream’ (iced coffee served with coffee ice-cubes, a small carafe of milk, and gula Melaka syrup) and ‘Trouble White’ (the “trouble” referring to the extra effort needed to prepare this concoction of single origin coffee with milk). Cold brews are also available.
The beans are supplied by Artisan Roastery; the selections by Joey Mah of Three Little Birds fame. “I prefer a light or medium roast, the former for hand drip black coffee and the latter for milk coffee. Personally I like clean, fruity notes so South American beans such as El Salvador suit me very well. Joey knows I find African beans too acidic and Indonesian ones too bitter, so he doesn’t send me any of those.”
While enjoying your coffee, take a closer look around you. Spotting the paraphernalia is part of the fun. Unlike some cafés where the knick-knacks that form the décor seem more clutter than curios, here clean lines dominate.
A pair of Incredible Hulk fists offers relief for those with anger management issues; a framed Breakfast at Tiffany’s poster has Audrey Hepburn approving of those with more poise. The thick wooden chairs hide another mystery: stacks of magazines or books within the hollow recesses of the seats. You can read something different every time you visit!
Even the coasters that come with your drinks are spiced with a bit of silver screen sparkle. Every piece has a different scene from a film — quite a number of them Wong Kar-wai productions such as Chungking Express and The Days of Being Wild — with a corresponding quote. Relive the cryptic logic of Takeshi Kaneshiro’s Cop 223 as he buys a can of pineapple with the expiration date of May 1 every day.
There are homemade desserts here — from a red bean matcha cake to an Earl Grey cheesecake with apple sauce. But the star of the menu isn’t even on the menu yet. Available only from 7-9pm, Midsummer Night’s take on the Japanese onsen egg rice is worth waiting for (as it takes 10 minutes to prepare). Imagine a bowl of steamed-to-order Japanese short-grain rice, topped with a soft-boiled onsen egg.
“After 12 years in the food magazine industry, I had hundreds of good recipes,” says Dep. “When I decided I was going to introduce a dish for dinner at the café, I realise it had to be easy to make due to our small crew but also delicious. It had to be the sort of comfort food I’d eat at home.”
Inspired by the onsen egg rice bowl at Maruhi Sakaba, a yakitori eatery run by Taman Desa’s resident izakaya king Seiji Fujimoto, Dep set out to create his own version. Garnishings include seaweed, bonito flakes, vegetarian floss made from dehydrated mung beans, sesame seeds and a “minced pork” that’s actually a secret sauce made from Chinese Mahogany fruit.
“I first tasted this Chinese Mahogany fruit sauce at my student’s home. After our drawing lessons, the student’s family invited me to join them for dinner. It was a simple meal of rice and vegetarian food. Oh, but this sauce made everything so appetising! I fell in love with it from my first taste of it.”
Does love have an expiration date, like a can of pineapple? Maybe, maybe not. For now, one man’s dream of a café where everyone can spend an evening “daydreaming” and making art seems to be full of promise. May this dream never have an expiration date.
Midsummer Night
36A, Jalan Awan Hijau, Overseas Union Garden, Kuala Lumpur
Open Tue-Fri 7pm-12am; Sat-Sun 3pm-12am; Mon closed
Tel: 03-7971 2345
Facebook: Midsummer Night (https://www.facebook.com/pages/仲夏夜-Midsummer-Night/946636475362172)
