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It started with an aphrodisiac. Fred Alloysius and Daniel Gendre met at Jakarta’s New Age bar in the early 2000s, where Fred managed. Daniel had trained as a chef in Switzerland, and the two were mulling over the idea of opening their own place.

One night the two were having drinks and dinner, and Daniel ordered his usual nasi goreng kambing, or fried rice with lamb. According to some, spicy lamb is an aphrodisiac, and Aphrodite (or Venus in the Roman pantheon) was known for her elaborate feasts, according to Fred. The partners saw the goddess of love as a theme to set a menu around, an aesthetic with classical statues and sandals, and yes, love.

Now, after a decade of the two owners tweaking details, a family of sports-enthusiastic expatriates has made Aphrodite Bar and Restaurant their surrogate home. There are serious billiards, birthdays, holidays and costume parties, and all the ways you might party with your family. “This becomes their living room,” Fred said.

It’s his living room too. There’s a glass table in Fred’s corner (its proper title is Fred’s messy corner) with laptops strewn about, coffee and a pack of cigarettes. Fred’s doing a little business, but also shooting the breeze with legions of customers and friends. He buys me a few beers, as we talk about the last 10 years of Aphrodite in Jakarta.

“When we first started, I was the face, and I connected the people. Now they’ve connected themselves,” Fred said.

He and Daniel also own Liquid Exchange bar and restaurant in Epicentrum and Fez bar in Kemang.

“I met a lot of these people at New Age bar, and they came with me. It’s pretty much always by word of mouth,” he said. “I never put any ads up.”

Aphrodite opened in a building on Jalan Rasuna Said in an area that has seen massive growth in the last three years, including apartments, the Bakrie Building and a several new restaurants and bars. And directly next to Aphrodite is Club Rasuna, a gym.

“People said it would never work,” Fred said. Apparently, those people underestimated how much athletes enjoy a cold beer after exercise. “A lot of the gym members are our customers,” he said. “In this building they can balance their lives.”

When Fred and Daniel talk about the early days in 2001, they’re describing a different restaurant that was cordoned off as Aphrodite Cuisine on one side and a pub on the other. “We had really intimate seating. Your partner always sat next to you instead of in front of you, with knee touching knee,” Fred said.

Daniel, who bought a few books on the aphrodisiac cuisine, selected lots of chilies and spices, asparagus, celery and avocado, oysters and mussels for the menu. It was sexy food, and people loved it. “People keep coming back for the food, which is a great value,” Fred said.

Heeding the demands of their clientele, Fred and Daniel united the dining room and pub in 2004, giving Aphrodite more of the sports bar feel that is present today. The budding community of sports-happy expats also wanted pool tables. “We went along with what people liked,” Fred said. “We’ve tried to cater to what people want.”

There are four pool tables in Aphrodite, and some 50 lockers for players (people that have their own gear are generally very good). Aphrodite competes in the Jakarta Pool League, and Aphrodite has four pool teams. “That’s a big part of our success,” Daniel said. “They get to know each other through pool.”

And then there’s sports. It seems that expatriates miss their sports as much as their families. With one old-school, bulky 24-inch television, sports fans could request games on Saturday nights. Aphrodite became the Jakarta spot specializing in global football matches, basketball, Formula One and American football. It has since expanded to dozens of televisions, and will soon offer wireless speakers to individual customers.

Fred and Daniel both say they’re sports fans but aren’t fans of any particular team. “I just like a good game,” Fred said. “I’ll root for India in cricket because I’m Indian.”

A waitress replaces our spent drinks. She wears sandals with straps wrapping around her calves in the Greek style. “We’ve changed the uniform a few times but the sandals have always been a part of it,” Fred said.

An Australian expat, Sarg, one of the pool captains, stops by the messy corner to talk about the new pool uniforms.

I tell him I’m writing a story, and he makes sure to tell me: “I am a proud supporter of Aphrodite, and I love Fred.”

And Fred believes in the community around him as much as they believe in him. “A few husbands and wives have met here,” Fred said. “And we celebrate birthdays and holidays, too, where kids from orphanages come and sing in a choir.”

Soon after, Aphrodite started offering gifts for the orphans. “The best day is the Christmas exchange with the orphans,” he said. “We give presents to the kids because no one else does. Toys and games and stuffed toys for the little ones. There has to be a giving back to society,”

Daniel smiles at Aphrodite’s unlikely success. “If you put it down on paper — a sports bar, wine bar restaurant pub — and you asked someone to invest in it they would laugh at you,” he said. “But it works.”