The 5 most traditional cafes in the jordaan in Amsterdam

The Jordaan was the first gentrified working-class area of Amsterdam. In the mid nineties, it attracted many young professionals. Café De Tuin is a classic and down to earth bar, crammed with young Amsterdammers on weekends. De Tuin also serves sandwiches and snacks. 

’t Monumentje is a small traditional pub where you’ll find a group of regulars drinking, chatting and reading newspapers from morning until midnight. The coffee is really good and cheap at the same time. Regulars visit in October to join the backgammon tournament. The wall of fame is near the door. 

There was always one certainty in every episode of the classic Dutch crime series Baantjer: at some point during the episode the main characters would go to Café Lowietje. It was there that detective De Cock and his side-kick Vledder would always have a break-through in their investigation. 

The Jordaan exploded in July 1886 when the authorities put a stop to the popular tradition of eel-heading, which involved stringing a live eel to a rope and pulling its head off. Twenty-six people died during the ensuing uproar. The so-called Palingoproer (eel revolt) started in front of De Kat in de Wijngaert (when Lindengracht was still a canal). 

Here, Pieter Hoppe opened his now famous Hoppe jenever distillery in 1780. Afterwards he moved to the city of Schiedam because he needed more space to make his popular spirit. The building now houses Café ’t Smalle, which opened in 1978. The owners used an old painting showing the original interior design to reconstruct the bar’s authentic look and feel.