Stamtenten of the underworld

The authentic Amsterdam atmosphere is best experienced in the city's many cafés. But sometimes they can get quite lively. Here is a selection of some of the capital's most notorious pubs.

The best way to experience the authentic Amsterdam atmosphere is in the city's many cafés. But sometimes they can get quite spooky. Here's a colorful list of some of the capital's most notorious pubs.

Sheherazade

Before the war, it began as a jazz café and, under the leadership of legendary Jewish bar owner Dicky Baruch, grew into a den of thieves from the mid-1970s onward. For this reason, the Sheherazade closed in 1984 (later, the club Sinners in Heaven would open at that location, ed.). All the wreckage of the night washed up at Dicky Baruch's place to eat steak and bread. Baruch knew everyone in the scene, and everyone knew Baruch. He, who died in 2023 at the age of 86, was a man to be reckoned with. The doorman at Casa Rosso, wrestling champion Chris Dolman, was one of his best friends, but in the early 1980s, notorious Yugoslav gangsters like Duja Becirovic and Sreten Jocic were constantly knocking on Sheherazade's doors. They took Martin Hoogland with them, the ex-police officer who would later be convicted of the murder of Klaas Bruinsma. After the Sheherazade, Baruch also opened the Falcon Crest on Korte Leidsedwarsstraat. He hired Martin Hoogland as a doorman, but later fired him for selling cocaine door-to-door.
Wagon Street

Louis Seize

A true classic. Louis Seize originated in the late nineteenth century and lived up to its chic name with its high-quality interior and well-maintained furnishings. However, there were some blemishes in the 1970s: during his robber days, The Hague gangster Stanley Hillis was one of Louis Seize's regulars, and Charlie, the fluent Chinese-speaking doorman, also worked as a side hustle for the Chinese K14 triad. He served as a bodyguard to the notorious Chinese godfather Chung Mon, who was responsible for a large portion of the capital's heroin importation in the 1970s. Incidentally, Charlie was also a bus driver and robber. A customer from Louis Seize took over his fare, and Charlie raced frantically back and forth to Zwolle to rob the Veemarkt there. He arrived back in Amsterdam just in time to finish his bus shift. He deposited the money in a Swiss bank account. This story could have ended so well for Charlie, but he received a fine for his racing. Instead of simply paying, he appealed, arguing he had an alibi ("I was on the bus!"). It eventually became clear that Charlie was the one who had robbed the cattle market. A classic case of penny wise, pound foolish.
Reguliersbreestraat

Café Stadion Corner & Café Van Dijk

Both cafés on Stadionplein were the place to be from the eighties until well into the nineties. "You should think of Stadion Corner as a cozy card club back then," says an insider. "There was card playing and gambling twenty-four hours straight. Lange Hans was behind the bar. He came from Café Heuvel and was a nice guy with a great sense of humor. They had those Random Runners, special slot machines that were very popular from the mid-eighties onward. Everyone was constantly healing and trading. A lot of stuff fell off the truck, that kind of thing." Van Dijk is actually a similar story. There was also a lot of trading there and gambling for days on end, in a specially screened-off section of the café. Later, Van Dijk was renamed Rood. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan closed Rood in 2011 because of gambling practices. Oh yes, and small quantities of soft and hard drugs were also found.
Stadium square

Juliana's or Baretje Hilton

Perhaps the most evocative pub on this list. Enter Juliana's by descending a small staircase on the side of the Hilton Hotel. Literally underground, guests could dance, hang out at the bar, or simply retreat to one of the tables. Top players from the underworld and upperclassmen frequent Juliana's. Wealthy businessmen from Amsterdam and beyond mingle with top criminals like Cor van Hout from Amsterdam and Johan Verhoek from further afield. Sometimes it gets a bit fizzy and abrasive, but in the early morning of June 27, 1991, immediately after Juliana's closes, serious fireworks take place. A few well-aimed shots end the life of the first Dutch mafia boss, Klaas Bruinsma. A few years later, the judge sentences Martin Hoogland, who denies the charges, to a lengthy prison sentence. Was it a drunken brawl, or revenge because Bruinsma (or his associates) were allegedly behind the murder of a Yugoslavian friend of Hoogland's? The background was never clarified. On March 18, 2004, Hoogland was shot dead in Hoorn. His sentence was almost up...
Breitner Street

Café Excalibur

In early 1990, the Amsterdam president of the Hells Angels, Willem van Boxtel, bought the building from Edith de Vries, daughter of "Black Joop" de Vries, the founder of Casa Rosso. It was then called Zandzakkenbar (Sandbags Bar), and that's exactly what it looked like. After a thorough renovation by Van Boxtel, the Excalibur opened its doors. The police considered it a Hells Angels café because Van Boxtel and his friends frequented it and the café featured in journalists' stories. For example, in 1993, heated discussions took place between Van Boxtel and journalists John van den Heuvel and Bert Voskuil, who wrote that the Hells Angels were extorting money from the neighborhood. After Van Boxtel's expulsion from the motorcycle club in 2004, he had to hand over many of his possessions, including the Excalibur café. According to the stories, this was not easy, but with the help of a corrupt accountant and a well-known Amsterdam butcher, the building was eventually taken from him and ended up in the hands of the Hells Angels.
Old Side Achterburgwal

Lexington

What Juliana's was in the 1980s and 1990s, Lexington was from the mid-1990s well into the new millennium. In The Lex, as the café was affectionately called by its customers, successful Amsterdam real estate moguls like Willem Endstra, John Wijsmuller, and Klaas Hummel would toast with underworld icons like Sam Klepper, John Mieremet, and Willem Holleeder. The latter was there so often that The Lex was nicknamed "Holleeder's Living Room." In one of his police statements, John Mieremet explained that the plan to extort real estate moguls originated in Lexington. He and Willem Holleeder approached wealthy Dutch people, who were then threatened. Only if they transferred large sums of money would the men leave them alone. The judge later sentenced Holleeder to nine years in prison for extorting and threatening real estate developers like Willem Endstra and Rolf Friedländer.
Willemsparkweg

Jan steen

From the late 1990s until well into the new millennium, this was one of the most popular haunts for the underworld. Leaders Johnny Mieremet and Sam Klepper often met there to discuss their business, as did Stanley Hillis and Jan Femer. All were former members of the group around Klaas Bruinsma, after he was shot dead in 1991. In the new millennium, the name was changed to Jong Zuid as an upgrade, but despite all good intentions, the clientele remained the same. The new generation of gangsters, such as members of the group around top criminals Gwenette Martha and Houssine Ait S., also found their way to "De Steen." After all, the pub was right in the heart of "their" neighborhood. In 2007, 33-year-old Robert Knufman, a convicted ecstasy and arms dealer, was shot in the head in Jong Zuid. The murder remains unsolved. Willem Holleeder regularly drinks there with Lucas Boom, who was shot dead in 2015 – without paying, according to the stories. The owner of Jong Zuid was also allegedly extorted and eventually fled abroad. The café closed permanently in 2015.
Ruysdaelkade

Cafe de Unie

Cafe de Unie is what they call a charming little pub in Amsterdam. During the day, you can enjoy a cup of coffee and a grilled cheese sandwich, but from around seven o'clock in the evening, it fills up with people from Oud-Zuid. The patrons drink and chat until the final round bell rings around two in the morning. You can often hear from outside whether the circle of friends surrounding top criminal Jan Femer is present. He often takes over the back of the pub in the afternoon. The group around Femer includes Peter Raap, Ruben Ten Have, and Ferry de Kok. The latter three are also known in the community as Huey, Dewey, and Louie, or Pjotr, Point, and Chin. Including Jan Femer, they are all huge men and all blessed with a rather "powerful voice." Of this group, Jan Femer was liquidated in 2000. Peter Raap narrowly survived an assassination attempt in 2015.
Amsteldijk

The Halls

"Just drop in for a chat," reads a lightbox on the facade of De Hallen. It was supposedly a very convivial place, yet the café owned by Thomas van der Bijl, a friend of Heineken kidnapper Cor van Hout, became known primarily for a brutal assassination. On April 20, 2006, owner Van der Bijl was shot dead while vacuuming the establishment, which was then known as a gathering place for Amsterdam's "free men." Cees Houtman was a frequent visitor. In the 1980s, he was the leader of the gang De Denkers, so-called for their audacious and well-thought-out bank robberies. Willem Holleeder was also a regular at De Hallen. Police files reveal that the relationship between Van der Bijl and Holleeder cooled after Cees Houtman's death in 2005. In 2019, Holleeder was convicted of ordering the assassination of Van der Bijl.
Corner of Jan van Galenstraat / Willem de Zwijgerlaan

Café Wildschut

This still-famous café was once the subject of a telephone conversation between Willem Holleeder and a journalist from Vrij Nederland in 2007. At the time, Holleeder was in prison for extortion and called the journalist to tell him about the two camps that had formed in Amsterdam after the attack on Cor van Hout in 1996: on the one hand, Van Hout and Holleeder, on the other, Klepper and Mieremet. Things threatened to get completely out of hand, and Holleeder says in that conversation that Mink Kok, another Amsterdam criminal, intervened: “Mink was a friend of Sam Klepper and a friend of mine. After the attack on Cor in 1996, there was a meeting at Wildschut. Mieremet and Klepper were there with heavily armed bodyguards. Mink's guys showed up wearing nothing but sneakers, nothing else. It was a matter of 'gabbertje gab' (little guy, gab). Mink said to Sam: 'Listen, you're my friend, but Willem Holleeder is also a friend of mine. Willem gave me his word that he won't do anything against you in response to the attack on Cor. Then you have to give me your word that you won't do anything against him. You're my friend, Sam. But if you mess with me, you're no longer my friend.' They gave their word.” Willem Holleeder is now serving a life sentence, partly for ordering the murders of Cor van Hout and John Mieremet.
Roelof Hartplein

Cafe South

2012 brought bad news for Amsterdam's motorcycle clubs. First, the Hells Angels had to vacate their clubhouse, Angel Place, on HJE Wenckebachweg, where they had been located for over thirty years. A few weeks later, Café Zuid was closed. It was known as the home of the Satudarah motorcycle club and was said to be home to a significant amount of undeclared money. Pursuant to the Bibob Act (see box), the municipality decided to stop issuing permits. In any case, Etous Belserang, one of Satudarah's leaders and the brother of Boneka Belserang, who was shot dead in 2009, was a welcome guest at the café. That same year, Etous narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. In 2021, Etous died of heart failure at the age of 46.
Rhine Street

Fayrouz

On March 9, 2016, a shock rippled through the Netherlands. On the sidewalk in front of Fayrouz, a head stood upright, facing the window of the hookah café. The head turned out to belong to Nabil Amzieb, who was only 23 years old. His body had been found the night before in a burned-out car in Zuidoost. Fayrouz was known as one of the gathering places for a group involved in the Mocro-war, which had gripped the capital for years since 2012. In 2014, the café also came into the spotlight after the assassination of Amsterdam criminal Mohammed el Mayouri. In 2015, an attempted murder was reportedly foiled by the arrest of two men standing nearby. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan decided he'd had enough after the gruesome discovery on March 9 and immediately decided to close Fayrouz. It now houses a bag shop.
Amstelveenseweg

Do they still exist?

You hear it often: Amsterdam is no longer Amsterdam. The excitement that used to be present on every corner has given way to a Disney-esque sense of security. And indeed: as the number of bars in the capital has shrunk, the number of "dodgy bars" has also decreased. This is partly due to the implementation of the Public Administration Integrity Assessments Act, also known as the Bibob Act, since 2003. With this law in hand, government bodies can assess the integrity of businesses, and that is exactly what happened in the city center. The mere appearance of illegal or criminal activity was enough to deny a license. The changing drug trade also plays a major role. In the past, it was all much smaller: you could still trade a kilo of white, brown, or weed in a bar or somewhere in an alley or on a street corner. Today, the cocaine trade is much larger and more global. Traders in Dubai pick up the goods in Colombia, ship them to West Africa, transport them to Morocco, and land them in Spain, all while arranging everything themselves via their PGP phone in Dubai. A meeting at the corner pub is no longer necessary. Unfortunately…

Yugoslav pubs

In the 1980s, many Yugoslavs migrated to the Netherlands. Yugoslavian restaurants sprang up like mushrooms. The Yugoslavs also held their own in the underworld. Klaas Bruinsma, among others, regularly deployed Eastern Bloc members to carry out all sorts of violent crimes. "I'll send a few Yugoslavs after you" became a catchphrase. Typical Yugoslav bars emerged in Amsterdam during this time. De Koperen Papegaai on Van der Helstplein, 't Biggetje on Madelievenstraat, and The News on Korte Leidsedwarsstraat were known as such. One and two Yugoslavs, respectively, were shot dead at the latter two bars.

A few more names…

Café Molen De Victor on Rozengracht, home to the legendary Jopie Mees from The Hague; Casablanca, the first Dutch jazz club on Zeedijk, which later fell into the hands of "Zwarte Joop" de Vries; the Funen bar in Oost, where Willem van Boxtel's Kreidler Ploeg Oost slowly morphed into the Hells Angels; and the Shisha Lounge where, on the evening of April 22, 2012, 31-year-old Redouan "Takka" Boutaka was shot dead. And so on.

And if it can't happen in bars...?

Criminals crave a lot of noise and people around them when they meet colleagues. This way, they're less likely to be overheard, and it's safe because you don't expect someone to do anything crazy with so many witnesses. If they don't meet in bars, they'll meet up in roadside diners or hospital restaurants, for example. Or they might do the complete opposite and take a stroll along the canal or in the woods with their conversation partner.