"Honestly me and my business partner, Marcus who is repairing bikes with me, worked with each other 1 year at a different company. The owner was a jerk. He did horrible business towards his customers, he cared to make money only not whether he gave quality to his guests. It was ridiculous. Finally I couldn't take it any longer...I said that is it lets do our own bike store. It took me 2 months to ready the place here and since Marcus couldn't just walk away from his job he worked at the other store and I ready the new one. Now we're having fun. We're treating our guests nicely and hoping they have fun and like us. You can like us on facebook too!" The kind owner jokes.
"I love the white ceilings since before they were red or green and the people couldn't see the menus to eat dinner. Now today I am the most happiest since my people are painting the ceilings white. That is the blue walls and the white ceilings and tonight with the fine dining and the exclusive romantic restaurant that we are indeed known for we can have the white ceilings."says the wonderful charming owner Rinato.
020 - 626 01 58
"I drink white wine in the summer and red wine in the winter,"says Rinato, the Roman Italian owner of Vasso which is the most important Italian Authentic Restaurant in Amsterdam.
"Amsterdam is a good place to work. The government is good the people are good. The people that come here are Americans, English, Dutch...they want to eat in privacy and I rarely come from the kitchen. I am supervising all the time...to see that the presentation of the plate is perfect. I want the Italian food to be Italian. I want my cooks to know how to cook Italian. If you don't know how to cook Italian I throw you out the door."he says.
One of the sweetest things about Vasso is the cool menu designs that Rinato designed himself, "I made these..." he says as he hands the menus to me. How cool. I say. "Yes yet when I came here since all of the animals are staring at the people I threw them out! I kept the windows with the simple design of the antlers and I made the menus. Only the antlers since that is a symbol yet people don't want dead aninmals staring at them!" Rinato says honestly.
"You know it wasn't love at first site...it is hey I met a real hot girl at the bar in college...we both felt that way drank way too much went home with each other;" says Bas(okay it is a fellow walked into a bar start of a joke however it ends happily ever after); "and 5 years later we traveled the world with each other and now the last 1 and 1-2 years we've owned the bar. It is the best thing that ever happened to us and it was the first month apart from the scariest thing happening when you start to get serious in a relationship-you know the woah I don't know if I am doing the right thing here..." Bas says about the feeling of both quitting high paying jobs and opening a restaurant.The risk huge? " Yes we would look at each other the first month and say alright I am really scared here...seriously we knew nothing about German how to cook a bratwurst or sauerkraut etc and we drove back and forth to Germany constantly trying to learn how to do it. After the first month and eagerly watching the guests try the food and liking it we had a full house one night and had to have guests waiting in line. Wow that is when it is great;" he says. Funny guy. I am sure his wife loves his relationship comments!
"Wow welcome you came at a great day...we just received news that we're one of the 10 most beautiful bars in the Netherlands competitor and today we're hosts to 12 food bloggers of the Netherlands." okay if that isn't a hilarious introduction what is! When I ask one of the food bloggers what exactly is a food blogger? "Well this isn't my real job...yet I cook my own recipes and I go around to the restaurants in Holland and write about the food and enter it on my blog. It is fun. funny. and some of us have about 35,000 people that see the blog." And Rogier says, "Today 1/2 are making Old-fashions and 1/2 making DimSums and we're going to rate the food bloggers on their creations today instead of them rating us!" he says. Okay this team is fun! When I ask who drinks the cocktails the food bloggers learn to make? Rogier jokes, "AHH my colleagues."
"The chef is a Michelin Star 2 stars...he is amazing many years and finally he says you know I want to have fun and make good food...I just want to make good food that people can afford and everybody can try...and when he came here his concept is to allow everybody to eat his food...guess what we've been open since June and Michelin already gave us one star! It is about the service and quality...not about what you dress like. I wear a t-shirt with a funky jacket yet we have soooo much fun all the time and we received a 1 star from Michelin already! It is true. It is about the service and quality. It isn't about what you dresslike." alright that is the big guy under neath the owner! name? Rogier Van Asselt
"We love to see the tourists when they come in and grab these and then they say AH AH AH as they try to fan their mouths...we say that their hot but they eat them anyway...or it is funny when they come in and try to eat these with forks and knifes and it is impossible...you must use the hands!" says Aimee laughing hysterically.
https://www.facebook.com/brasseriedegroot?fref=ts
"The Brasserie de Groot is a place where the locals come to. You know the other one is near the Anne Frank house. So we knew that the tourists would love the Stamppot and they do. Especially the Americans always ask if we have it and they eat the big plates. The Americans have huge plates and the Amsterdam people are used to tiny plates. When I go to America I can't wait to see all the food I am going to eat since everybody says that you eat a lot of food!" She smiles happily at the thought of coming to America to eat the huge plates we give? And I ask where on earth she heard such a thing. "Everybody tells us that in America we can all eat a lot of food." And while that is true with steaks and hamburgers and french fries, the Stampport servings are a good competition!
"The new restaurant named Brasserie van Noordt is going to be healthy. The chef that we have here is MO. He used to work with my father. We've known him a long while. Now he is happy to be developing the restaurant of pasta and healthy food. Shakes and smoothies and vegatarian. It is a big trend in Amsterdam now. You would think that with people riding bikes everywhere that they do it to be healthy but really they do it because they have to ride the bikes. It takes 10 minutes to go around the city on a bike and 2 hrs. on the car. That is the reason. They don't want to eat healthy. They just know they have to use the bike,"says Bryan when I ask if the people of Amsterdam eat healthy since they bike all the time. Different than the health nuts of California! 0204 234 287
28 Van Noordtstraat.
Gerson made a Passion Swizzler for me and it is finally hitting me as I type...pretty darn strong...it's good though!
I pet the big cat sitting on the aquarium... "She is a little agressive actually," says Gerson. "one time a guy came in with a dog- German Shepherd and she, the cat attacked...she ran up to the guy and climbed up his leg and he had the German Shepherd on his shoulder protecting it and he is laughing...O it is just a little cat...Uh huh..." Gerson says laughing. "i kept holding my breathe that it didn't attack him!"
When I google the Trip Advisor reports of the bar the cat's picture comes up with the caption..."I LOVE THAT CAT!" COOL. 
"Another cool thing that we do is the teaching school We have had the last 20 years students who work with us 4 days and study one day in the Hospitality industry college level. I am a teacher the last year. One guy is a bartender with us the last 6 years and our best bartender yet everybody all of his teacher's said O he is impossible you will never be able to do anything with him. He came to us and he is the best one we have now. That is what is cool. You see people learning here.Of course you see the guests having fun. They're pubs! Of course they have fun. Yet it is cool to see the students who are with us grow everyday and we choose the ones that would fit with us. It helps us with our staff too." he says.
"I am a little bit old-fashioned,"he says when it comes to the selection of his wines. "Of course people can call and make reservations and have private wine tastings or they can come on Fridays and Saturdays to the store and taste the wine. I love European wines. I've won the various awards such as from the Amsterdam Paper Parool which I received a 9 out of 10 for matching my choice of wine to a famous chef's recipe. It is a contest they do every year. The recipes used to be easy and I could cook these myself and choose the appropriate wine but now they're much more difficult and it is impossible for me to follow the ingredients so most of the people submitting wine are gourmet cooks too."What fun! to learn new recipes from the paper and to try to cook these and choose wine...that is one cool contest@ Parool. "One year I went down to Argentina and visited a vineyard where they invited us to make the wine the old-fashioned way...you see the Italians stomping the grapes in the big circle wooden barrel...something like that. Of course it takes about one year to taste the final wine yet it was fun. I didn't have time to wait in Argentina for one year though."
Meeting Susanna who along with her cooking husband, Johan, own the famous fish restuarant Lucius in Amsterdam, is a treat. First she is totally smart and most importantly knowledgeable about her fish. "You have to be. The menu is in 9 languages, and the people ask. My team has been a long time. You know if a German couple come in and they ask about the oysters I must know about the oysters. 
We have many different types here and everyday the fisherman when they bring the oysters he brings a sheet of paper that tells me all about each one. Where they grew up. How long have they been here. What they eat." She laughs yet says, "Most people don't think of a oyster about what they eat but that is important in how sweet you are. Etc. You can tell the difference on how and where they grew up." I ask her if it is akin to a sommelier? " Yes of course and I am amazed at the knowledge they have. You have to know the product. Everyday I try to learn more. The Quatre Saison is different than the Netherlands oysters for example and the french ones we have today Ile de Re is different from the ones we'll have tomorrow. You know we used to be in Michelin Guide on and off. I think it is about the knowledge and the service is why people come here. And really my husband is the better one. He knows all there is to know about fish. He is the cook" she says. 
Ismail's great store is on the famous shopping street of Amsterdam near Leidseplein named Spuistraat...right near the square. Close to Central Station...about 200 meters and close to all of the cool local restaurants and cafes... Have fun. "Tell the people that we repair all bikes and that we give students discounts for the repairs too." he says.
"We work in the kitchen below all day long starting at 8:00am and at times we work til midnight if we have a lot of baking to do. We started the fresh fruit smoothies a little while now and everybody seems to like these too."They let me and another guest taste the healthy smoothies and I say that California would love the bakery!
Here is the fresh fruit smoothies!
Mother and father at the bakery...although the father does most of the baking, and the mother takes care of the lunch items, Regina says she is learning more everyday..."You know when they retire I must know how to do it all."Too which her father gives her a laugh like you know I am still young! https://www.facebook.com/traiterie.chef.adam
"The bakery is famous and everybody smells the spices from the sweet apple pie when we bake in the morning the alley is full of people wanting to know where that great smell comes from"says Regina's mother...and the future, Ï want to write a cookbook of all of our recipes...we've already been on Dutch television and I want people international from around the world to buy my book!"
The Eccentric Genius of Guts & Glory ...Freek Van Noortwijk@ 02 036 2 0030
"Please mention the 3 of us, Johanneke van Iwaarden is my best friend who is a girl and my best friend Guillaume de Beer is my best guy friend. They're my partners and they're partners with each other."It's cool.
Freek is a "freak of creative energy"you will find yourself ready to run IBM when you walk out of the ecclectic modern restaurant on the hustling and bustling street named Utrechtsestraat 6 .http://www.gutsglory.nl/ check it out.
"The Michelin staff comes in and says we're the best chefs ever...we're just waiting for our stars!"he jokes. "Yet I do love to push for it you know it is totally provocative in that way in a good way. It is totally fun and coo. We have a lot of fun here. The team is enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Nowadays you have to respect the culture of the world.
The actors are talented yet the show content was a little more than I would say is comedy...see the show and see love emme
http://www.boomchicago.nl/
Rozengracht 117, 1016 LV Amsterdam
020 217 0400 |
