History of Brasserie De Poort

Brasserie de Poort is a part of Hotel Die Port van Cleve in Amsterdam. The rich history of this classic Amsterdam city centre hotel dates back to 1864 when G.A. Heineken opened his first Heineken brewery on this location. Due to the city council filling in the canal in front of the building in the name of modernisation, Heineken moved his brewery to the present location on the Stadhouderskade in Amsterdam.

The Hulscher brothers continued the business and on 5 September 1870 a unique beer house opened its doors, called Die Port van Cleve. The name Die Port van Cleve comes from a memorial stone with the inscription ‘Die Port van Cleve’ which was found during the renovation of the building by the Hulscher brothers. The beerhouse was a popular place for business man and artists to get together. It did not take long before it expanded into a restaurant with the Brasserie De Poort serving typical Dutch dishes and what were to become the famous numbered steaks.

The eating establishment ‘De Poort’ system, meant to serve the best possible food as fast as possible. The speed of the order was very important. After ordering, the waiter shouted this as loud as possible, without breathing. The waiter behind the buffet, echoed the order to the kitchen, repeating it without missing a word.

Imagine a room full of people waiting to order. All those orders, shouted through the room by waiters and echoed into the kitchen, before quickly being prepared and served.One might get an impression, of the noise and cozy rumor caused by all this. 

In this vibrant room, sophisticated stockbrokers and merchants, were eating together with locals, farmers and provincials. Everybody was equal, there were no differences in ranks. In those days people did not rush, but every time a person had finished, his place was soon occupied within the next person again. On rush hours a table could be used four times. Nowhere but in ‘De Poort’ the original German custom was used: everybody was placed next to each other. Without asking strangers sat aside, both men and women.

Many guests repeatedly had the same table and wanted to be served by their own waiter. He knew what they liked, they didn’t even have to order anymore. From toothpick, aperitif to a certain newspaper, the waiter knew and remembered. Everybody enjoyed the place and the fabulous steaks with potatoes and eggs.

The secret of these special steaks lies in the fact that they were prepared on peat fire. In ‘De Poort’ they followed the art rules of preparing, served straight from the frying pan.

The most important element in ‘De Poort’ is not to be forgotten: the waiter. This man was in direct contact with the guests and fulfilled an important role. He treated his guests confidentially and knew them all by heart. Still he never became to familiar with them.

The waiter worked eagerly and rapidly, as custom in ‘De Poort’. None of these waiters is working here anymore, but the spirit and tradition is still alive.

The numbered steaks have been served at Hotel Die Port van Cleve since then and soon the magic number of 6,000,000 numbered and certificated steaks will be reached.