On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Jakarta, a flock of 20-somethings eagerly heads to Pasar Santa, a traditional market that’s recently been transformed into the city’s new creative hotspot. While the ground level looks like a regular local market – old garment shops, fruit and vegetable stalls – the first floor is quite different. Here, narrow corridors host something new in every corner, such as coffee shops or cold-pressed juice bars. The atmosphere is bustling, with a soundtrack of jazz from a vintage vinyl store playing in the background.

This area’s renaissance is a breath of fresh air for many Jakartans, who would otherwise consider a trip to one of the city’s countless shopping malls as the highlight of their weekend. It’s also a sign of the times. Jakarta has been going through drastic changes in recent years. The area has a growing population of over nine million as well as a rising middle class, triggering a boom in consumer spending.

Locals are getting tired of the capital’s reputation as a traffic island and their trailblazing governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, is working on a facelift and major infrastructure projects, including an upcoming mass rapid transit train system. It’s a change that’s also reflected in a wide variety of retail and hospitality start-ups popping up across the city. These range from restaurants and cafés to speciality boutiques and menswear stores, founded by a new breed of creative entrepreneurs seeking to reinvent the way Jakartans eat, drink and shop.