Cafe Batavia 1920

I'm always pleased to learn of new pubs with a decent beer selection. Especially ones as conveniently-placed and attractive as Batavia. It's just along from the Zeedijk, facing Centraal Station. Very handy for a pub crawl. There are half a dozen other pubs in this guide within 100 metres.

I noticed the building years ago, I have a thing for 1920's architecture and Batavia is a particularly fine example.Lost of decorative 3D brickwork. Insides is almost as nice. There's curvy wooden panelling that looks original. At least to me it does. But I've been fooled before.The light fittings are great, too. I would show you a photo, but all ones I took are too blurry.I should have taken them before I started on the Maredsous 10.

The beer list has a couple of real surprises - Liberty Ale and Titan IPA from the USA, for example.Much better than your standard Amsterdam bar. About 53% of the way to being a proper specialist place.

Mike had a couple of reservations. And not for dinner. He wasn't keen on the music. Not the music they were playing, but the fact that there was any at all. It wasn't even that loud. Or particularly crappy. Low-key jazzy-type stuff. I didn't even notice it after the first 2.4 minutes.

Young people. There were some of those in there, too. Talking to each other and having fun. That pissed Mike right off. That they were obviously tourists only made things even worse. And I thought I was a grumpy old bastard.

The Maredsous 10 went down nicely. Or do they call that Maredsous Tripel now? It doesn't reeally matter. It tastes nice and has a bit of poke. I like beers with a bit of poke, especially in the winter. Warming, alcoholic without any weird extremeness. That's how I like my beer. Which is why I hadn't chosen Titan IPA.Who wants to drink an inauthentic US-style IPA when it's cold, wet and windy?

Almost forgot, They stock a couple of beers in 75 cl bottles. La Chouffe and a proper gueuze. For those days when a just 33 cl won't do. I have plenty of those. Now I think about it, every day's like that.

I couldn't persuade Mike to stay for more than three beers. The pull of Ooievaar just down the road was too strong. I wasn't going to argue with him. Not with all those jenevers. And boiled eggs, too. I'd not had any tea. A boiled egg would do just fine.


Batavia 1920
Prins Hendrikkade 85,
1012 AE Amsterdam,
Tel: 020 - 625 6634
http://www.batavia1920.nl/