Jordaan Historic Brown Cafes

Café Chris sits on a corner in the Jordaan with a distinctive dark green wooden exterior and large windows that catch the afternoon light. It opened in sixteen twenty-four, making it the oldest brown café in the neighborhood. When the…

Café Brandon wears a distinct dark green painted facade that stands out against the pale brickwork of the seventeenth-century canal house. Inside, the low wooden ceilings and weathered bar date back to nineteen twenty-six. It operates in a…

De Twee Zwaantjes features a bright, traditional wooden facade painted in deep green and white, standing out against the neighboring brick row houses on Prinsengracht. This is one of the oldest brown cafes in the Jordaan district. It began…

The slim, dark wood exterior of Café 't Smalle sits right on the edge of the Egelantiersgracht canal. Inside, the stained glass windows catch the afternoon light, illuminating shelves packed with jenever bottles. Pieter Smalle opened a…

De Blaffende Vis features a bright yellow facade and a name that translates to The Barking Fish. It functions as a classic brown café, the kind of dimly lit, wood-paneled corner bar that defines the Jordaan neighborhood. In the nineteen…

Café Lowietje features a faded, mustard-colored facade with wooden shutters that seem to hold the building together. It earned its fame as the local haunt of Johnny Jordaan, a singer whose voice defined the melancholic songs of this…

The Papeneiland café sits on the corner of the Prinsengracht and Brouwersgracht, identified by the faded, mustard-colored paint on its seventeenth-century brick facade. This building once served as a secret tunnel entrance for Catholics in…