The Brown Café Is Not Dead. Here’s Where to Find the Real Ones.

A bruine kroeg — brown café — is an Amsterdam institution. Dark wood, nicotine-stained ceilings (or ceilings that were, before the smoking ban), jenever on the bar, no cocktail menu, probably a croketten machine by the door. They’ve been disappearing for twenty years. The ones that remain are worth treating with some reverence.

Café Hoppe, Spui

Café Hoppe (Spui 18-20) has been open since 1670. Two connected rooms — one more formal, one the original brown café space. Jenever list is long. The Spui terrace outside fills up on sunny afternoons with a mix of people that tells you Amsterdam used to be for everyone. Go on a Tuesday afternoon, not a Friday evening.

Café ‘t Smalle, Jordaan

Café ‘t Smalle (Egelantiersgracht 12) has a canalside terrace and an original interior from 1786 when it operated as a jenever distillery. One of the most beautiful café interiors in Amsterdam and the terrace is one of the best spots to sit in spring. It does get tourist-heavy on weekends — weekday lunch or early evening is the way.

Café de Dokter, Centrum

The smallest bar in Amsterdam, they claim. On the Rozenboomsteeg 4, which you’d miss if you weren’t looking for it. Eight stools at the bar, no room for much else, jenever and beer, opens at 4pm. The kind of place that exists because Amsterdam used to have a hundred like it and now has a handful.

The rule: drink jenever, not beer, in a brown café. Order a kopstoot if you want the traditional combination — a small glass of jenever alongside a small glass of lager. It is what it is, and it is correct.