Amsterdam’s Best Cafes

Written by Philippa Burne, UK, October 2012

RECOMMENDATION Keywords:
Good Place to Drink, Popular with Locals, Cafe

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Comment from Philippa Burne

There are two kinds of cafes or coffee shops in Amsterdam – the famous ‘coffee shop’ which is one of the city’s main tourist attractions (though this is fast changing with the new laws coming in), and the brown cafes which actually serve coffee, beer and food and which are where you’ll find the locals relaxing in an atmosphere that is both vibey bar and laid back café.

Brown cafes are so named for the color of their walls. Back in the day when people smoked cigarettes inside, the smoke, the candles and the coffee along with the fuggy enclosed warmth keeping out the bitter winter winds tended to turn the walls a distinctive brown color. These days the smoke is gone but the walls have stayed brown. And those bitter winter winds still blow along Amsterdam’s canals at the height of winter.

Editor’s Note: This recommendation was taken from our Amsterdam Things to Do blog. Visit the original post to continue reading the full post and to learn more about things to do in Amsterdam.

Photo courtesy of PjotrP via Flickr.

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