Description: Wandering around the Jordann area of Amsterdam we suddenly noticed that the heavens were about to open with a huge thunder storm coming. Fortunately, we were stood outside a bar (Cafe Papeniland) we had always wanted to visit, but had always previously found there no seats there. It seemed like fate and we arrived at the door just as the first juicy drops erupted over the cobbles outside.
Cafe Papeniland is in a typical area of the Jordann; a nice neighbourhood populated more with locals than tourists. It is on a corner with an attractive canal as backdrop. The cafe dates from 1642, and has a lot of old features, including an old stove surrounded by deft tiles.
While the bar offers a fairly standard set of Amsterdam brews (large over fizzy glasses of lager Amstel at 5 Euros or the usual fare of draft palm and bottled light lager), we enjoyed the decor of this old brown bar. The look is wooden and there are plenty of little old tables dotted around the unevenly shaped room. We also admired the well executed and modern paintings of the inside of the bar hanging on the wall.
The bathrooms are downstairs in the cellar, and there is an additional upstairs seating area on a wooden platform. Obviously disability access wasn’t a tick box requirement of the architects of yesteryear.
As we sat, more people came in from the rain offering a good range of the good folks of Amsterdam to observe. While others have said the service is unfriendly, we liked the bar staff and found her very helpful. She certainly got herself very wet shutting all the windows to ensure her patrons were in the dry.
We also visited the cafe later on our trip during a more pleasant afternoon. The outside of the bar is shaded from the worst of the afternoon sun, although locals had beaten us to the best seats.
The Cafe was flooded with the wonderful smell of apple and cinnamon and we spotted the beautiful looking cake on the bar. It had to be done, and one slice with three forks did all three of us for a little snack and cost less than 4 Euro. The only thing letting the apple pie down was the mass of sweet squirty cream on the side, which we left.
Close