Café Hoppe

Café Hoppe opened on the Spui in 1670, first as a jenever distillery before it settled into the "brown café" it's been ever since — the Dutch term for a pub dark enough with age and pipe smoke that the walls themselves turned the colour of tea. It's not the single oldest such bar in Amsterdam, but it's the one that became the city's default meeting point: journalists, academics and, eventually, a young Princess Beatrix have all stood at the bar here.

The oldest section, at number 18, is a protected national monument inside and out — gin barrels stacked along the walls, a worn wooden bar, standing room that fills shoulder to shoulder most evenings. It still runs on the same simple order: a jenever or a beer, standing up, no food beyond bar snacks.

Go in the early evening if you want room to actually stand at the bar — it gets packed elbow to elbow after work lets out.