September 13, 2018 · Team HG
Café Amicitia on Noorderstationsstraat has recently been put up for sale. The current owner, Klaas Dekker, who has run the café with his daughter Miranda for eight years, is stepping down for health reasons. According to the Dekkers, the target date to close is this coming November 1st.
“It started in November 2010 on the Boterdiep. I had just sold my chip stand and was looking for something new. A friend told me that the living room café Amicitia was for sale. He backed out, but Miranda and I persevered. I had worked at PTT Post for years and had just been working as a chip vendor for six months. Together with my wife Willy, we visited the café a few times. And shortly after, I was a pub owner,” Klaas says this Thursday afternoon, just before the first customers trickle into the Amicitia.
Before the ‘old’ Amicitia opened on November 1, 2010, with Klaas and Miranda at the helm, Miranda was an executive secretary. From day one, she stood behind the bar as if it were nothing. “I was incredibly timid, but that wore off quickly. When you work behind the bar in a café like the Amicitia, you get to know the people and the habits very fast. It really changes you. I certainly didn't have such a big mouth back then as I do now – haha!”
“We have always had a very broad audience. All kinds of people come here. From handymen to pensioners, and also relatively many women. From all walks of life. For example, Midas Dekkers was at the old Amicitia one Sunday afternoon. He had a few drinks first, chatted a bit, and then went to a lecture. He spoke there himself,” said Klaas.
“There are people who found the love of their life here and are still married. Relationships have started, but others have broken up. And we have raised a glass to deceased regulars. Yes, in the last eight years, at least forty regular and less regular customers have passed away,” he continues.
Miranda adds, “What we did find a shame a few years ago was having to leave the Boterdiep. That was such a cozy place. Beautiful old-fashioned lamps above the bar and carpet on the floor. And playing knobbly, right? That still happens often here too. Just like a little game of klaverjas, darts, and billiards.”
“Because I have health problems, I am no longer able to keep the pub running properly. It just isn't working anymore. We are hoping for a buyer who wants to continue in the same way. That is good for our customers. When I look back on the last few years, I could write a book about it. We have all shared joys and sorrows. Gained a lot of insight into human nature and experienced a lot, a great deal,” concludes Klaas.
