BANDA ACEH – It was just after 7 pm on a Saturday evening, and the manager of the new King’O coffee and doughnuts outlet in Banda Aceh was lamenting a slow night’s business. Henry, who would only give one name, said he opened the shop on May 17 this year in response to what he called a gap in the market. “Any time I fly back to Banda Aceh from Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, I see people bringing big boxes of doughnuts – Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme, local brands,” he said. With no such outlet in Aceh’s regional capital, Henry and some fellow Chinese-Indonesians set about filling a niche. “Business was great for the first few weeks, every evening the place was full,” he said, rattling his knuckles on the top of a gleaming new Italian coffee machine. But during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting season, King’O was forced to close during fasting hours, along with all the other restaurants in town
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