In the Amsterdam autumn, winter (and spring!), you need a café where you sink into a sofa and stare into a fire. You need a place to get warm. You need to listen to the sounds of crackling wood and smell that wonderful smell. You need an Amsterdam café with a fireplace. To help you out, here they are:
6 Amsterdam cafés with fireplaces
1. Pllek
Take the ferry to Amsterdam North to NDSM, enjoy the wonderful sights along this 15-minute boat ride and walk to Pllek. Pllek is Amsterdam’s favourite ‘creative hang-out’, located along the water IJ. It has amazing views. In summer it functions as a city beach, in winter you can hang out indoors.
There is a wonderful fireplace. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served with a focus on biological and organic food. There is live music after a morning yoga class on Sunday.
2. Café De Wetering
In the centre of town, but a bit hidden and easy to miss is Café De Wetering. De Wetering is an old brown bar styled café with a downstairs bar where the Dutch chat cosily with strangers. A typical drink is Jenever (Dutch gin) to go with a plate of cheese and mustard.
Upstairs is where the fire crackles nicely. Visitors are asked to keep it going. You can cuddle up with the bar cat on the leather sofa while you stare into the flames or join the locals for a friendly chat.
Café de Wetering
Weteringstraat 37
3. Pacific Parc
Eating, drinking, dancing. You can do it all at Pacific Parc. The all-day hotspot has a with a big, sunny terrace at cultural hub Westergas. Coffee or lunch, casual dining, a beer in the sun or dancing the night away, Pacific Parc is good all day long. And they have a fireplace!
4. Hannekes Boom
Hannekes Boom is mostly famous because of its fantastic location. The bar and restaurant are surrounded by water. here is often live music on Sunday. Food and drinks are available all day. And it’s great in winter too. Indoors is just as cosy with its warming fireplace.
5. The Lobby
Many Amsterdam hotel lobbies have a fireplace, like the College Hotel and the Dylan Hotel, but the ambiance tends to be a bit stiff and the staff a bit cold at these places.
The Lobby is the bar/restaurant of Hotel V in Nes 49, a long dark alley famously lined with theatres off Dam Square. Obviously, the floating fireplace is traditionally surrounded by Chesterfield sofas. Recently they opened a second place at Fizeaustraat.
But the best thing is the menu. On it are some very interesting comfort foods that you need in the Amsterdam winter, like wentelteefjes (the Dutch version of French toast), American pancakes and the reputed Flammkuchen, a pizza-like speciality from the Alsace region.
The Lobby
Nes 49
Fizeaustraat 2