June 28, 2024 · Culinary Journalist
A brasserie where you can go early in the morning for a cup of coffee with a treat, right after dropping your kids off at school. But also a brasserie where it is lovely to have drinks, or how about just a good meal for dinner? That is Brasserie Harkema in the Helpman district of the city of Groningen. According to local residents, this was exactly what the neighborhood needed when it opened years ago.
Brasserie Harkema is run by Lisanne Harkema and Jeroen Timmermans. The two met at The StadtlanderOf which Aunt Teddy Harkema was the owner for a long time. In Helpman, they soon noticed that there was a demand for a kind of meeting place for the neighborhood. For a very broad audience.
‘I think about eighty percent of the guests come from our own neighborhood,’ says Lisanne. ‘Parents who have dropped their children off at school, elderly people who use the brasserie for their daily get-together with friends, but also people cycling from Haren to the city regularly make a quick stop at Harkema. We also fulfill a kind of social function here,’ she adds. ‘We even have such regular guests that if they don’t come by for a day, they call to let us know.’
The first guests are often already at the door before nine. ‘In principle, we don’t open until 9, but that’s perfectly fine.’ A light breakfast with coffee? There is a choice of freshly baked homemade cake or monchou cake. Furthermore, you can satisfy your initial hunger with fresh croissants or yogurt with granola. ‘And if you have other breakfast requests, we can always discuss it,’ says Lisanne.
The intention was to set up a kind of eatery to fill all the gaps in Helpman. ‘People here really needed a nice eatery, a place to pull up a chair at the bar and enjoy a nice drink. We succeeded in all of that.’ What they hadn’t foreseen was that dinner would also do very well, but by now that has become an indispensable part of the experience as well.
We are very small, so we always have three dishes: fish, meat, and vegetarian. The steak is something guests really come back for.
Another big plus Lisanne mentions is the terrace. ‘That is something Jeroen and I have always wanted. That terrace is truly fantastic. You can use the whole corner, and when the weather is nice, it’s buzzing here; really something to be proud of.’
Brasserie Harkema is open from Tuesday to Saturday. For more information, visit www.brasserieharkema.nl.
