The new Amsterdamse Bar Piquette by the water has a mega terrace and a forbidden drink
Amsterdam-Noord, I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for a while now: that’s where it’s happening! With the new pop-up bar ‘Bar Piquette’, Noord has gained another wonderful spot—with a farmers’ picnic by the IJ.
On Friday, May 28, Bar Piquette opens in Noord on the terrace behind Gedempt Hamerkanaal 231. Everything here revolves around the French farmers’ picnic, where the eponymous and forbidden drink ‘piquette’ is served.
What is piquette?
Refreshing, low in alcohol, with a lovely fizz and made entirely through circular production. Piquette is the perfect summer drink, but strangely enough it’s also a completely forbidden beverage, which French farmers used to make from the by-products (grape skins) of grapes. Due to old-fashioned regulations, the drink may be forbidden, but the Bar Piquette team wants to break through the old dogma. So unleash your inner rebel on the new sunny terrace and raise a glass of this forbidden summer drink while looking out over the IJ and Central Station.
Grape skins are perfectly fine
Tom Veugen of Chateau Amsterdam, who had to throw away more than 7,500 kilos of grape skins last year, immediately saw potential—uh, ‘wine’—in the piquette story. ‘When we heard that old-fashioned regulations were the obstacle to launching such a beautiful circular product, we told Tom that we simply had to start a bar to show that it could be done,’ says Joost Aartsen, co-founder of Tosti Horeca.
By adding some spring water and a pinch of sugar to the must (grape residue), the drink ferments again. This creates Piquette d’Amsterdam, a delicious, low-alcohol summer drink with a light fizz and a slightly exciting natural-wine flavour. And it’s made right here in Amsterdam Noord.
Piquette with baguette
Under French wine regulations, only the farmer and their family are allowed to drink piquette, which was precisely a fun reason for the creators of Bar Piquette to go all-out ‘rustic’. At Bar Piquette, they serve products in their purest form. On the menu you’ll find everything a great picnic needs, but genuinely fresh and genuinely delicious. The idea behind the menu was to make it feel as though you were walking through a supermarket, picking up everything for a picnic—but all homemade and incredibly fresh. Think really good butter, sardines, beautiful cheeses, dips and hams. Even better: fresh baguettes are baked every hour, and you can grab one for free.
Thanks to its favourable location behind De Kromhouthal by the IJ, the large terrace gets sun until late. A wonderful place to join others, whether you’re with a small or large group, this summer. Bar Piquette is open from Thursday through Sunday from 12:00 p.m. and closes when the sun goes down. Of course, you can always take a few bottles home with you!
Piquette petition
Whether piquette is a product for the future is up to the terrace’s visitors. You can sign a petition to legalize the sale of piquette. If 5,000 people sign the petition, the team will continue the fight to make piquette legal in Europe!
Not in the mood or don’t have time to travel to Noord (no worries—but still: why not?): from June, you can also find Piquette chilled at all Stach locations.
Summer terrace Bar Piquette, The terrace of De Kromhouthal, Gedempt Hamerkanaal 231, Amsterdam
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