Bars

Just to say: De Basis is one of my fav spots in Amsterdam – It was a love-at-first-sight encounter – and if you are following my blog you know the kind of places I like. De Basis looks like they had something like 500 Euros left and asked the guy with the screwdriver to build them an interior. Unvarnished triplex. And instead of throwing the waste material to the garbage he used it to build a giant tree that extends from the basement floor (some 60′s chairs and a vintage table) to the ceiling of the main floor.

Nice people, good music – bit more up-beat than my other spots, refreshingly energetic, less alternative, and so is the crowd: you feel the beat of the city, and you can’t help to get that Berlin feeling. Even though the guys behind the bar pretend not to be claiming that feeling, actually claiming the opposite: this is Amsterdam, not Berlin. Right so, who wants to always be identified in comparison with someone else? As if that co-existence is your only right to exist at all.

And: bring your own food. Order on-site from a delivery service or just head across the street, get something from Albert Heijn, and heat it up in one of their microwave ovens… You are cordially invited to supply your own dinner!

Another update: Final closing down event (party) 25th of May!

Born and raised in the centre of town, I find myself often taking the ferry to the other side of the IJ to clear my head. Pllek is a great cultural hangout in the North, close to Noorderlicht (another favorite spot of mine). It’s like a beach joint minus the beach crowd – a safe haven in between all the huge industrial constructions and rusty boats at the NDSM shipyard.

Pllek is continuously in development (they’ve secured the spot for the next ten years!). New colorful sea containers are added to the U-shaped cluster all the time. It’s like a playground. The restaurant is airy and rugged as well as classy, and they already have the best terrace this side of town. It’s right by the water and the sun hits from dawn till dusk – make sure to lather up on sunscreen and bring your swim gear just in case. The first time I went I unexpectedly stayed for hours and left looking quite lobster-esque.

Pllek offers (mostly organic) food, music, art and outdoor cinema as well as tai chi and yoga, and they’re open all year. They’re as open-minded as its vista. Imagine campfires and troubadours with guitars in summer, and wind and waves beating outside in winter. It’s also close to the IJhallen flea market and where the Over het IJ theatre festival is held in July each year. It’s worth the trek over anytime just so you can experience the city from the other side for once.  

It took a while, but Amsterdam finally has a cinema museum again. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of the move because the old film museum was so iconic and pretty and its velvety seats were tattered, and that’s how I like watching my movies. But the first time I set foot in EYE (let’s not get started on the name, and let’s definitely not get started on the whole ownership-thing) I was blown out of my ruby slippers.

Could it be we’re finally playing with the big boys? The museum exudes international flair. It’s big, it’s white and it’s nondescript (is it a crocodile? is it a whale? is it a wink? who cares) and I like it. The banks along the IJ are finally throwing off their casts and revealing the bigger plan. Located right opposite Central Station, easily accessible by ferry, EYE is in efflorescent Amsterdam-Noord – check out some of the other articles in the area for some off-the-beaten track strolling.

Inside, the museum offers something for everybody – you can have food and drinks on the huge terrace overlooking the water and wave at the cruise ships or visit the exhibitions or their extensive library. They also have four screening rooms (with brand new chairs!) that show classics, specials and new releases besides hosting cinema concerts and cult evenings. Or you could just run up and down their grand staircases endlessly. The main hall is so exuberantly big you’ll want to play.

Picture this: Little round tables covered with fluffy table cloths, the fabric girls nowadays make maxi skirts out of. Bottles of coffee creamer on each, that might have been around as long as the tablecloths have. Colored glass windows, stained in more ways than one, that let in just enough daylight to illuminate the big old clock in the smoky back room, which chimes every thirty minutes – perhaps to let you know it’s time for your next kopstoot, or to remind you that time is indeed passing, no matter how easy it is to forget about it here.

De Hegeraad is another one of those old pubs that are great to get lost in, quite similar to De Pilsener Club, except that besides its obvious pale ale throwback, it’s a black-coffee-morning-paper kind of place as well (even if they open at 12:00).

Perhaps, if I’d been born way back when, I would have been selling under-the-counter ointments in the apothecary this pretty Jordanese building used to house. Or I would have been one of the fun gals being boozed up by the bartender in the off-license it held afterwards.

With a pretty terrace under the trees on the picturesque Noordermarkt, De Hegeraad can get a little crowded on weekends but somehow retains its time traveling appeal. Buy yourself a fitting top hat or even one of those carpet skirts at the vintage market on Monday mornings, and take the leap.

I love discovering places in Amsterdam that have been around for ages without my knowing about them. A while back, I found myself in De Pilsener Club, hidden right next to the horrible shopping strip de Kalverstraat. To locals the pub is better known as ‘De Engelse Reet’ (roughly translated as ‘The English Arse’, but don’t let that put you off!)

This beer café is one of Amsterdam’s oldest, and it’s as ‘brown‘ (as the Dutch like calling their local pubs) as they come. Four generations of traditionally clad bartenders have made sure everything looks and feels like you’ve just traveled 125 years back in time – from the original sandy floor boards to the yellowed pictures on the wall. The stories that undoubtedly went down here over the years are almost tangible – they even have little name plates adorning the seats of their regulars through the years.

What I love most about places like this is that they make you want to act as the atmosphere suggests. You want to sit down in their creaky chairs, turn off your mobile phone, order three portions of ossenworst and Dutch cheese (they also sell eggs for 50 cents, because who would let the alcoholics go home to their wives on an empty stomach?) and talk about books all night, whilst trying at least six of the great array of special beers and jenever they have on offer.