Café Tabac

DutchAmsterdam.nl — Amsterdam is home to some 1200 pubs, bars or cafés. Over here these terms are pretty much interchangeable.

Traditionally the locals have used most of these places as extensions of their living rooms. The local pub is a place to meet your friends, get caught up on all the news in the neighborhood, read some newspapers and shoot the breeze with whomever happens to be there.

Café Tabac, Amsterdam

Café Tabac is such a place.

Situated at the corner of Prinsengracht and Brouwergracht — one of the most photographed picturesque spots in Amsterdam — Tabac is known for its friendly and helpful staff.

Travelers at various Internet rating sites also mention the friendly clients, as well as the Asian food and snacks on offer here.

The building in which Café Tabac is located is — like so many buildings in the neighborhood — a monument.

At the end the sixties the top two floors burned out, after wich Stadsherstel, and organization that specializes in the restoration of monuments, rebuilt the house.

Long-time Amsterdammers know that from the early seventies until some time in 1996 this was the home of Café Smackzeil. Smackzeil, a type of sail, happens to be the name of the building.

Incidentally, bars and restaurants have been serving food and drink at this spot since the end of the 17th century.

Purists sometimes squabble over whether or not Café Tabac can be considered a so-called brown café, but those who love the place have no doubt about it.