Bar Guide for You: Amsterdam

Intro

KEEP IN MIND :
that this is a BLOG about cocktails and its culture. Purpose of this blog is to give you an idea and a description, whether the place is good or not from the point of you of a customer as well as bartender.
This blog should show you a way how to appreciate the bar, cocktails and its way of preparation, if you are a tourist or a visitor searching for a good place.
If you are a Bartender, Barmaid or Barmanager, you may find some useful informations about the VALUES of bartender´s job.
However, keep on mind, that this is a blog and only one person is writing it. There are many places i haven´t visited (yet) or I visited only once. My experience may be different from yours.
Enjoy responsibly.

Monday, 26 August 2013

Amsterdam

Tales and Spirits, Hard Rock Caffé and the city, day 1

Ok guys it is 26.8.2013, I am in Amsterdam right now, and by this opportunity I'm officialy starting blog BarGuide4u.

Today was a total failure. I was looking forward to go to Tales and Spirits. That is the bar, I came to Amsterdam for, but actually I've realized, that it's Monday and this bar is closed. My ´´plan B´´ was to go to Hard Rock Café, but it was the same story.

Like a bonus my GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition just died in such a brilliant way, that it even burned the 64gb memory card. So I have no videos or pictures.

Amsterdam is a pretty amazing city. Its full of young people, nice places, where to go and everything is well organized. I don't really like city sightseeing so I just basically left the hotel to get lost.

Every street with the cannals looks the same, so You would say, that it would be very easy to get totally lost, however all the streets are rectangular to each other and there are a plenty of connections to main streets, so if You will just keep an idea in which direction is your hotel/accomodation or some meeting point which You will choose before, it is impossible to get lost completely.

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Complete list of visited places

(Amsterdam) De Brakke Grond
(Amsterdam) Door 74
(Amsterdam) House of Bols liqueurs
(Amsterdam) Tales and Spirits
(Bergamo) 035 Zerotrecinque
(Bergamo) Biif Restaurant
(Bergamo) The Artisan Café
(Brno) Bar, který neexistuje
(Brno) Pablo Escobar
(Brno) Super Panda Circus
(Canarian Islands) - Lanzarote (general)
(Ibiza) Beautiful people boat party
(Ibiza) Café Del Mar
(Ibiza) Gin Sapphire Bar
(Ibiza) Hippie market - Restaurant with no specific name
(Ibiza) Ushuaia club
(London) Artesian
(London) Be at One Bar
(London) Happiness Forgets
(London) Nightjar
(London) PortSide Parlour
(Malta) The Thirsty Barber
(Malta) Tower 22
(Milan) Diana Garden hotel Sheraton Majestic
(Milan) Nottingham Forrest
(Milan) Principe Bar hotel Savoia
(New York) Attaboy
(New York) Backroom
(New York) Black Tail
(New York) Garfunkel's
(New York) PDT
(New York) The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog
(Paris) Candelabria
(Paris) Experimental Cocktail Club
(Paris) Harry's New York Bar
(Paris) The Club bar
(Paris) The Lockwood bar
(Prague) Black Angles bar
(Prague) Bugsy's Bar
(Prague) Hemingway Bar
(Prague) L'Fleur Cocktail bar and Champagne
(Prague) Tretter's New York bar
(Rome) Frizzo
(Rome) Ice Bar Rome
(Rome) Jerry Thomas speakeasy bar project
(Rome) Johnatan's Angles bar
(Rome) Level club
(Valencia) Barcode
(Valencia) Café Del Negrito
(Valencia) Gong
(Valencia) Porta de Serrans cocktail tent
(Valencia) The Soul

Coral Reef Syndrome

In many reviews, you can find a note about the Coral Reef Syndrome, so what does it actually mean?

It is known, that coral reef is a living organism and its further developing or ´´evolving´´ is fully dependant on its position. Better position it has on the actual rock, less effort it has to make, to reach the food and to grow.

Cocktail bars are exactly the same. Bars located in the city center do not have to fight for their customers, because tourists are going there automatically. And underneath the pressure of massive amount of guests, it is happening very often, that quality is moved behind the quantity and good manners and excelent customer service are in that case neglected completely.

,,If one guest will leave, because i was rude to him, he has to pay what he ordered anyway. And there are 3 more people waiting outside for that seat already....´´

Strictly No Pictures Policy

Means, that i will try to avoid posting ´´revealing´´
pictures from interiors of bars or cocktails. As you can read in many reviews, i am writing a lot about the atmosphere of the bar, which is partially created
by your personal impression after you enter and how do you actually feel inside the bar. As soon as you see the place in advance, you will start to have expectations and at that point the place looses its ´´WOW effect.´´
For example : Have you ever been in Rome? No. Do you know how the Colosseum looks like? Yes. Then you will go there, and instead of wondering how amazing it is, you will say : ,,Wow, it looks exactly, like on that picture.´´ Or you will start to make comparisons…
More about taking pictures inside the bar you can read in
the review on : http://barguide4u.blogspot.it/2015/01/experimental-cocktail-club-paris.html
Sure you can google any place and how it looks like inside,
but you will destroy your first impression for yourself. By No Pictures Policy i don't want to participate in it.

This blog has a few purposes :

1, - If you like cocktails and you are
not a bartender, it should give you an idea, how to judge the cocktails, its service, culture and how to make an overall opinion, wether you enjoyed the place or not. However THIS BLOG IS NOT A LIST of good bars or where to go, mainly because my ´´ratings´´ are VERY different from other websites and their reviews and with some of them (especially those very famous and popular) i strongly disagree.

This blog is written in a specific way – reviews are positive as well as negative. Instead of simply writing : ,,This bar is good go here / this bar is not good, don't go here,´´ i feel responsible enough to describe why are those places good or bad. To reveal, if it is recommendable, you need to read it.

2, - If you like cocktails and you are a
bartender (yes, i have to write it down in this way, because not everybody behind the bar is a bartender) or a bar manager, it should give you an information, that bartender makes the bar. His personal attitude to the work, customer service, sense for perfection, discipline and etc…, are abilities, that are for free. It doesn't cost money or extra time. (If i am not counting
bartending courses). It costs only some effort.
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We live in large cities all over the world with countless amount of bars, restaurants and so on..(For example only in Prague,
there are MORE THAN 12.000 restaurants… Now you can imagine London, which is 10x bigger). Therefore i believe, that especially small details are now more important than ever before. In this age it is simply not enough to only have a
good cocktails, because if your bartenders are not having an excellent customer service, i can guarantee you, that in the same city, there is going to be at least one bar, where they have it and at that point, you are out of the game. I am not telling you, to try to be the best bar at the world. Instead of that,
focus on doing things propely on ALL aspects of bartending. After all, you are doing it for the people. If you will be doing things properly for your cutomers, they will appreciate it.

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All reviews are describing many aspects of bartender's job, wether they are good or bad. Main purpose of this blog is - if
you are a bartender or bar manager - to give you an idea, what you should improve in your bar/style of work, simplified by reading on ´´how they do it in other places.´´ If you will improve something in your bar, based on reading
this blog, i will consider this site as successful.