December 19, 2017 · Menno Hoexum
Hospitality businesses with a long history in the city can be counted on the fingers of one hand. One of those few businesses is The Ninth Circle on the corner of Poelestraat and Peperstraat. In early January, the café celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, and the owners who opened the doors to the first guests in 1968 still live in Groningen. Roelof and Tineke Posthumus are hosting a modest party for friends and acquaintances on Friday, January 5, in the late afternoon.
The current owner, Jan Hoeve, is happy that the founders of the company can still celebrate this small milestone, and he did not hesitate for a moment when asked the question. "I wholeheartedly wish this for these people, the founders of the company, to experience this. After this small party, we will hold an even bigger celebration for current guests, staff, and former staff. It is no small feat, a café that has existed for half a century."
At the time, Roelof and Tineke, in their thirties, were the first hospitality entrepreneurs to establish themselves on Poelestraat. They bought the building on the corner that had previously housed a grocery store. "We had to do something. I had taken over my father's coal business, but the arrival of natural gas in the 1960s put an end to the until then flourishing business within three years. I was able to sell the business premises in Helpman to the municipality, and with that money—35,000 guilders—we started De Negende Cirkel."
Interior builder and furniture maker Henk Vos was commissioned to design and build an atmospheric café. A name for the new business had not yet been found, but Henk Vos's wife provided the solution. "She regularly visited New York and frequented a cozy bar there called The Ninth Circle. She thought it was an atmospheric café, and we liked her suggestion, because we didn't want something as ordinary as the City Bar."
The new café was a hit. From the day of the opening, guests flocked in, and this has remained the case virtually throughout its fifty-year existence. Twenty years after the opening, Roelof's health brought an end to the couple's life in the hospitality industry. Daughter Astrid had ambitions and ran the café together with her partner. Personal conflicts forced her to stop working as a landlord. At that time, Father and Mother Posthumus were already successfully operating the kiosk for tobacco products, newspapers, and related items on the Grote Markt.
Roelof Posthumus still looks back with great pleasure on those first twenty years he spent behind the bar with his wife Tineke.
Jan Evenhuis, Johan Remkes, Alfons Dölle, and Hans Matthijsse, to name a few. The footballers of Oranje Nassau viewed the café as their second clubhouse, and later the basketball players of Donar and the ice hockey players of GIJS joined them. Around the same time, Poelstraat developed into the entertainment district for the Northern Netherlands, and one hospitality establishment after another opened its doors. Famous names from that era include The Jolly Joker, Blow Up, De Vlaamsche Reus, Déja Vu, Salle a Manger, and the still-existing establishments such as Time Out, City dweller and Golden Keg.
After daughter Astrid's departure, the company changed hands and eventually came under the umbrella of Sjoerd Kooistra's hospitality holding company. At that time, Peter Giezen had already been the owner and operator for quite some time, and following Kooistra's death and the subsequent bankruptcy, he was given the opportunity to continue the business. Giezen sought expansion and acquired a number of additional establishments in Poelestraat and Peperstraat. He did not bring this to a successful conclusion. Another bankruptcy followed.
Jan Hoeve had already been a neighbor for almost twenty years at that time with his café Ome Ko, meanwhile renamed into café De Brouwerij, and saw a great opportunity, a challenge. Four years ago, he bought the business and the name from the bankruptcy trustee of Giezen.
Hoeve calls it astonishing that the name of De Negende Cirkel has remained firmly established in the market after all these years. "It is primarily a student café now. But the ease with which you used to be able to attract students to your establishment has disappeared. It really comes down to entrepreneurship now, and you have to achieve that with a good team that has managed to have confidence in the business. Given the growth we manage to achieve every year, I can say that the acquisition of De Negende Cirkel has been successful and its continued existence is guaranteed."
Although Hoeve has only been at the helm for four years in The Ninth Circle he understands that he, too, has to throw a party.
After Roelof and Tineke’s small party, we’ll kick things off at ten o’clock. A party fit for a student café, featuring performances by a number of artists. Judging by the reactions on social media, it’s likely to be busy. People living and working all over the country still vividly remember De Negende Cirkel from their time in Groningen.
Facebook event: 50 years of the Ninth Circle, Friday, January 5, 2018 from 10:00 PM.
