Brown Café Day opens at Eik en Linde on Saturday 3 October

The annual Day of the Brown Café takes place on Saturday 3 October, and the national opening is at Café Eik en Linde on Plantage Middenlaan.

Actor Frank Lammers and alderman Lian Heinhuis will ring the bell for the first round of the day.

Lammers will soon become a publican himself when he opens his own café, Reve, on Linnaeuskade.

Heritage status

Heinhuis, of the PvdA, has campaigned for some time to protect the brown café.

She led the effort to add pub culture to the Dutch national inventory of intangible heritage.

Earlier this year the brown café was officially recognised as UNESCO intangible heritage.

On the day, everyone aged 18 and over is invited to walk into a brown café. Nearly 100 of them across the Netherlands are taking part.

A brown café has its own traditions, a recognisable interior and a social role in its neighbourhood or village.

Above all, though, the atmosphere comes from the publican behind the bar.

Closures this year

That is why the publicans are at the centre of the opening.

Journalist Mats Akkerman will lead a discussion with them about what makes the brown café special and timeless, and why its future is under pressure.

A hundred cafés have already closed this year.

Heineken director Maarten Schuurman will explain why both the public and The Hague should value the brown café.

The day is held every year on the first Saturday of October as a tribute to cafés that have been part of their neighbourhoods for generations.

It has three aims: to keep the cafés that remain, to show why they matter and to invite a new generation to discover them.

For more on how locals drink and order a round, check out our guide to Dutch beer and drink culture.

Source: Oost Online