I went out for dinner during corona and this is how it went
Hotel Not Hotel is a hotel (or not) in Amsterdam. Around the corner from my house in Amsterdam-West, to be precise. And even though my own bed is about 100 metres away, I went to sleep there. Why? Because I needed my hospitality fix before 1 June! And in a hotel, you can simply go out for dinner!
Loophole
Last weekend, for the first time since 15 March—the day the hospitality industry closed and my world became a whole lot smaller—I sat on a bar stool where drinks were made for me. I ate a three-course meal (out, not at home); drank a little too much; got to chat with bar staff again; and did all of this without breaking any rules. We found a loophole: hotels are still allowed to serve their guests. Hotel Not Hotel in Amsterdam-West is also home to my favourite cocktail bar, Kevin Bacon, so it was an extra celebration. They miss their hotel guests, and their deal was simply too good to pass up: €50 for a three-course dinner, a hotel stay and breakfast (!)
Dreaming of a Kopstootje
If there’s one thing I’ve dreamed about over the past few months—besides getting wasted in the hospitality industry, the perfect Sunday and bifanas—it’s kopstootjes. A cold, freshly tapped beer with a jonge jenever on the side. Sometimes I dream that I’m sitting at a bar and bring my head towards the shot glass to take that first sip, after which I pour the drink down my throat in slow motion. Just before I drink the sip of my beer, I wake up with a start. What a nightmare!
The jenever I have at home tastes fine too, but it’s still different with a bottled beer alongside it instead of a freshly tapped little glass. An online jenever tasting is fun, but nothing is as exciting as a real kopstoot. Just as people long for love, I longed for my first kopstoot in an Amsterdam hospitality venue. And it did not disappoint. The rounded glass was exactly as I remembered it, the temperature was perfect and the beer beside it had been expertly tapped by bartender Rosa, who would help us with the tastiest cocktails for the rest of the evening, wearing gloves. Chatting with her was no problem, despite the sheet of plexiglass hanging between us. Life finally felt normal again for a while; Covid suddenly became a vague memory; all because of that one kopstoot at the bar of Kevin Bacon.
Food
I already knew that Thai chef King from Kevin Bacon could cook. But it seemed as though the quarantine break had done him good. The food was delicious. The fishcakes (my favourite at Kevin Bacon) were excellent, but the Tom Yam Koeng in particular—the spicy broth with vegetables and a large tiger prawn—was sublime. My boyfriend has been to Thailand more often, and it reminded him of the soups he ate in northern Thailand. The fact that the dishes were placed down at a distance and we still had to set them out in front of us ourselves could not spoil the fun.
Watching the monkeys
The other hotel guests were enjoying themselves just as much as we were, at a safe distance, and secretly it was very satisfying to see passers-by looking inside as though they were witnessing something impossible. We felt like fish in a fishbowl behind the window at Kevin Bacon. Delicious Thai curries, pad thais, desserts and cocktails and Espresso Martinis later—wow, how I had missed this—we collapsed onto the bed in our room.
The day after
Rolling out of bed with a serious hangover and being served a perfectly decent breakfast too? Absolutely fantastic! A holiday in your own city. And the best part was that you were back home in no time for the necessary hours of catching up on sleep. I’m really looking forward to 1 June and can’t wait to sit on a terrace and at the bar again. But if everything does collapse like a house of cards once more, we still have Hotel Not Hotel with Kevin Bacon.
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