De Pilsener Club – a.k.a “De Engelse Reet”

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.