Office People in suits beside British in a tutu

It all started with Nordman Beers. A beer brand that Thomas Boonstoppel (1978) developed with partner Shaun Tiebor and tried to make the man. That was according to Boonstoppel too slow. "Here a few liters and sell a few casks put away there." It could be better and so the men decided to start their own business where she could donate so much of their own concoction as they wanted. And so it was that Bret pub in Sloterdijk with its striking red color on King's Day of this year opened the doors.

Sloterdijk is not the first place you think of to start a café.
Not really, no. And during the construction I have thought several times: what breed I'm going to do here? I remember that I gave a tour early this year when everything was disorganized together. I saw the visit with eyes rolling and think: these are seven containers with a lot of junk ...

How did you get here?
When Shaun and I went our bearings, we found is a website of the Amsterdam municipality in which places in the city appears where you can start something new. So we found a patch of grass at the back of Sloterdijk Station. We wanted to put a few containers and build a beer garden. To build it, we needed an architect. Someone tipped us that the front of the station architects Gijs de Waal and Wouter Falconer also did something with containers. Bret so. It turned out that even though they Hanneke's Tree and The Ceuvel had designed and were looking for a provider for their new design. After a few discussions with them, we decided to stop our savings in this property.

It was immediately clear that the containers had to turn red?
That's an eye-catching color would be that it was for sure, but the church was not immediately enthusiastic. Which did not fit the color in the area. We wanted just one color which caused much contrast with the drab office buildings. The red color will gradually turn into a green, incidentally, because we have a lot of vines planted against the building at.

You try to reuse as much material as possible?
Yes, the kitchen comes in part from a beach and a portion of an abandoned swimming pool in North America. And the woodwork is reused.

When did you feel that it might well be a success?
As the construction progressed. I saw how many people there at Sloterdijk and walked to work. Moreover, the station was refurbished and establish themselves more and more hotels in empty office buildings. All those tourists lusts have a beer.

But is that the audience when you aim?
At first I thought, oops, that's right? Britons dressed in a tutuutje celebrating a stag game next office people in suits, but this diversity is fine. That is what we want. We do not necessarily have to be a place for hipsters only.

People come specially from the center of town for a beer?
Also, only we have not paid much attention to the recruitment of that group. We go so hard since the opening. We thought initially to have enough staff to ten men. Meanwhile, there are 35 employees walking around and we're still looking.

And how are Nordman Beers?
We sell a lot of in Bret. A bit too much so. The beer starts to run out, haha.

metronieuws.nl/ by Merike House/  © homas Boonstoppel, owner Bret. / Femmy Weijs