Magani unites tradition with the new; reimagining the traditional batik shirt for the needs of our contemporary society. We combine Indonesia’s rich cultural heritage with the latest innovation in performance wear material to build the ultimate durable and comfortable shirt for the modern Indonesian man who is constantly on the move.
As we celebrate Indonesia’s heritage, we also celebrate the individuals who are unintimidated by the sweat and hard work required to defy challenges, push boundaries, and move Indonesia forward.
Meet the #MaganiMen who have inspired us that with grit and endurance, there are no limits to what you can achieve. #NOSWEATNOLIMIT
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#MaganiMen — Behind Supagetti, Zuzu Ramen, Soto Sabar, and Bakmi Bangka 888, Iwan Bedjo Sulaiman built his journey through years of hospitality, experimentation, and instinct. Starting from a hospitality background at UPH and experiences across restaurants like Santouka Ramen and The Holy Crab, he learned that great F&B goes far beyond food itself. For him, restaurants are built on emotion, consistency, atmosphere, and sincere hospitality. Whether through nostalgic comfort food, Japanese-inspired dining philosophy, or concepts rooted in intimacy and identity, Iwan believes the strongest brands are the ones people genuinely return to—not because of trends, but because of how they make people feel.
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A lot of people know the brands — Supagetti, Zuzu Ramen, Soto Sabar, Bakmi Bangka 888 — but not necessarily the person behind them. Looking back, what originally pulled you into the F&B world?
I actually entered the F&B world because of my educational background. I studied Hospitality Industry at UPH (Universitas Pelita Harapan) back in the early days when UPH was known for having one of the strongest hospitality programs. After graduating, I thought, “Why waste what I’ve already learned?” If someone studies IT, they usually become an IT person. For me it was the same mindset. I already had hospitality, so I decided to fully commit to it. At the same time, I’ve always enjoyed cooking, even though back then the only thing I could really make was fried rice. That simple passion slowly grew into something bigger.
After graduating in 2009, I briefly worked at Ritz-Carlton as a part-timer for around six months before opening a small restaurant in Karawaci with a few friends. Unfortunately, we were still inexperienced in managing cash flow and operations, so the restaurant only lasted around nine months before it closed.
After that experience, I went back into the restaurant industry and joined Metro Sky Garden, a German restaurant concept at SGU. A year later, around 2012, I joined Ersons Food Group, which became a huge part of my journey. Together we built and managed multiple restaurant concepts over the years, starting from Santouka Ramen at Plaza Indonesia and Kelapa Gading, then expanding into brands like The Holy Crab and Holy Smokes.
The Holy Crab became one of the biggest turning points in my career. The brand expanded rapidly across Jakarta, Bali, Alam Sutera, PIK, and even internationally to Vancouver and Bangladesh through franchise partnerships. After spending around thirteen years with the group, I eventually decided to move on and take some time to reconnect with old friends and future business partners. From there, new concepts slowly started coming together — beginning with Bakmi Bangka 888, followed by Supagetti, Zuzu Ramen, Soto Sabar, and several other projects.
Looking back, I think I simply stayed loyal to what I genuinely enjoyed from the beginning: hospitality, cooking, and building experiences around food.
Your restaurants come from very different culinary directions, from Japanese comfort food to Indonesian classics to pasta concepts with Japanese influence. What personally attracts you to building across multiple cuisines instead of staying within one lane?
Honestly, I just try to stay open-minded and look at opportunities. I never wanted to limit myself to only one cuisine because food is still food at the end of the day but the fundamentals are all connected.
From the beginning, I learned different cooking styles, so moving from ramen to Louisiana-style seafood or American barbecue never felt impossible to me. It’s more like exploring new playgrounds within the same world. Every concept becomes a new challenge, a new experience, and something exciting to build.
For me, chefs and F&B people shouldn’t be boxed into only one specialty forever. Being versatile keeps things interesting creatively, and it also allows you to keep evolving.
Supagetti feels very distinct compared to most pasta places in Jakarta — it has this quiet Japanese influence in both flavor and atmosphere. How did that concept originally come together?
The original idea actually came from my business partners. They introduced the concept of Itameshi, a style of Japanese-Italian fusion cuisine that combines Japanese flavors, techniques, or ingredients with Italian food. From there, we decided to focus more on pasta as the core identity of Supagetti.
But beyond the food itself, we wanted the experience to feel intimate and personal. We intentionally designed the space to feel small and warm, almost like visiting someone’s home instead of dining at a commercial restaurant. The idea was simple: “Come over, sit at the island table, and let me cook for you.”
That feeling of intimacy became the foundation for everything — the design, the branding, the atmosphere, and even the way we serve people.
There’s something interesting happening in Jakarta right now where people seem to crave comfort food more than “fine dining.” Why do you think comforting, familiar food continues to win emotionally?
I think comfort food is actually very personal. Not everyone is looking for the same kind of comfort. Some people grew up with fine dining culture, so elegant dining experiences feel familiar and comforting to them. For others, comfort comes from simple nostalgic food.
For me personally, comfort food is often tied to memory and emotion. At Supagetti, for example, we have Napolitan pasta, which feels nostalgic to me because when I was young, my mother used to make simple pasta with tomato sauce at home. It wasn’t fancy, but emotionally it stayed with me.
That’s why I think comforting food works so well, because people are not only eating flavors, they’re reconnecting with memories and feelings.
In your opinion, what makes people return to a restaurant today? Is it the food itself, consistency, hospitality, atmosphere, or something harder to explain?
Good food is obviously important, but today people are also looking for experience and emotional connection. Hospitality matters a lot. Sometimes it’s not about doing something extravagant but it’s simply about making people feel welcomed.
For me, restaurants should feel like being invited into someone’s home. You notice what guests need before they ask, you make them feel comfortable, and you treat them sincerely. That kind of energy stays with people.
A restaurant also needs soul. Not just from the owner, but from the entire team. When the whole team genuinely cares about the experience, people can feel it naturally.
Jakarta’s F&B scene moves incredibly fast. Trends appear almost every month. As someone who has built multiple long-running brands, how do you decide what trends are worth adapting to and what trends to ignore?
I think trends are important to observe, but not every trend needs to be followed. Usually, I try to see whether something has long-term value or if it’s only temporarily viral.
If a concept still feels relatable, scalable, and has a strong identity, it has a better chance to survive long term. Viral gimmicks may bring attention quickly, but often they disappear just as fast.
For me, the key is understanding what makes your brand uniquely yours. A restaurant needs identity and soul, otherwise people eventually forget about it.
Across all your brands, there’s a balance between accessibility and strong identity. How important is branding in today’s restaurant industry compared to ten years ago?
I think branding today is far more important than it was ten years ago. Back then, people mainly focused on food quality, price, and taste. Now customers pay attention to the entire experience: the identity, atmosphere, emotional connection, and even communication style of the brand.
People travel more now, they experience restaurants abroad, and they return with higher expectations. Because of that, good food alone is no longer enough.
Today, branding is reflected in everything: visuals, ambience, hospitality, consistency, and even how staff communicate with customers. Those details collectively shape how people remember a restaurant as a brand.
A lot of younger F&B brands today focus heavily on aesthetics and virality. Do you think social media has improved Jakarta’s dining culture, or made it more difficult for restaurants to survive long term?
I think social media has done both. On the positive side, it helps restaurants become known much faster, and it has made Jakarta’s dining culture more dynamic. People now appreciate ambience, concepts, and overall experiences more deeply. Social media also helps smaller restaurants gain visibility in ways that weren’t possible before. Many hidden places can suddenly become successful because people share them online.
At the same time, it definitely makes the industry more competitive and adds additional marketing pressure. Restaurants now need marketing budgets, collaborations, and constant visibility to stay relevant.
Japanese food culture seems to influence many modern restaurants today, even outside Japanese cuisine itself. What do you personally admire most about Japanese dining philosophy?
What I admire most is their respect for detail, consistency, and process. Japanese culture treats even the simplest food with seriousness and care. Someone can spend decades perfecting something as simple as tamagoyaki, yet continue doing it with pride and discipline every single day.
I also deeply respect their hospitality. It feels sincere, humble, and effortless, never overly dramatic. When you enter a Japanese restaurant, it almost feels like they invite you to briefly escape from the outside world and simply enjoy the moment.
That philosophy of humility and attention to detail is something I really admire and try to bring into my own restaurants.
Running one restaurant is already difficult, but operating several concepts at once is a completely different challenge. What changes mentally when you go from being a founder to becoming someone who oversees an entire ecosystem of brands?
The mindset changes completely. In the beginning, I was mostly focused on the kitchen and the product itself. But when you oversee multiple brands, you start thinking about systems, culture, consistency, customer experience, and long-term sustainability.
You stop thinking only about creating food and start thinking about building brands and teams that can grow together for years.
I don’t want these brands to exist only for one or two years because of hype. I want them to become long-term brands that people continue remembering and returning to for decades.
Was there ever a period in your journey where you questioned whether a concept would actually work, but it ended up succeeding unexpectedly?
Definitely — Holy Crab was one of those moments. At that time, the idea of eating expensive Cajun seafood poured directly onto the table felt very unusual in Jakarta. We were selling imported crab meals that could cost over one or two million rupiah per table back in 2015, which sounded crazy at the time.
But we believed in the concept and trusted our instincts. Unexpectedly, it exploded. The restaurant became incredibly busy, and within just three months we had already covered years of rental costs.
Sometimes customers can see potential in something before we fully realize it ourselves. That experience taught me the importance of trusting your gut feeling.
Food businesses are often romanticized from the outside, but operationally they can be brutal. What’s one reality about the restaurant industry that people only understand after experiencing it firsthand?
The biggest reality is how demanding and detail-oriented this business truly is. From the outside it may look exciting and glamorous, but operationally it can be extremely stressful.
You cannot build a restaurant alone. Finding the right partners and the right team is everything. Without strong people around you, operations fall apart very quickly.
In F&B, consistency depends heavily on teamwork. One missing person, one operational issue, or one weak system can immediately affect the customer experience. That’s something people only fully understand once they experience it firsthand.
You’ve worked across different types of cuisine and customer demographics. Have you noticed that Jakarta diners themselves are changing? If yes, in what way?
Definitely. Jakarta customers today are much more aware and selective compared to before. People travel more, experience global dining cultures, and return with broader expectations. Today customers don’t only search for good food, they also look for identity, experience, atmosphere, and value from a restaurant. They also follow global trends much faster now.
Because of that, I think brands shouldn’t try to please everyone. Instead, the goal is to stay relevant while still maintaining your own identity. Not every customer will be your market, and that’s okay.
Outside of numbers and expansion, what makes a restaurant feel successful to you personally?
Of course profitability matters, but personally, a restaurant feels successful when people genuinely want to come back repeatedly.
Not because of hype, but because they truly enjoy the food and experience enough to return again and again without getting bored. That kind of loyalty is very difficult to build, which is why I value it so much. When customers consistently choose to return, naturally the business will grow along with it.
If you had to describe Jakarta’s current F&B landscape in just a few words — what would you say?
Dynamic, competitive, and constantly evolving.
Jakarta’s F&B scene changes extremely fast. Trends shift quickly, customer lifestyles evolve quickly, and concepts that once felt niche can suddenly become mainstream. That’s why brands today need to stay adaptive — not only toward trends, but also toward social media behavior and changing customer lifestyles.
What does Magani mean to you?
I think Magani has strong potential because it carries a sense of Indonesian pride while still feeling modern. Personally, I’d love to see the brand lean even deeper into that identity, especially through stronger craftsmanship, more elevated detailing, and pieces that feel timeless enough to wear proudly in formal settings as well. What stands out to me is the idea of making Indonesian-inspired fashion feel refined, wearable, and relevant for today’s generation.
Click here to follow Iwan Bedjo Sulaiman on Instagram.
Click here to follow Zuzu Ramen on Instagram.
Click here to follow Supagetti on Instagram.