Tales and Spirits, Amsterdam

Tales and spirits part. 2

 

If it wouldn't be necessary, I would not leave the previous bar. But after all, when I was plannig to go to Amsterdam, I was planning to do a review of Tales and Spirits. Also entering just only one bar wouldn't be fair, because I wouldn't have a comparison. Unfortunately, I came just at the closing time to Tales and Spirits, only 30 minutes before complete closing,  so I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to stay.

 

Also one of the bartenders told me, that at this time, the bar is not serving cocktails anymore. Only bottled beer. Fortunately, there were two bartenders and the other one prepared the last cocktail of the bar and that night for me, which was the last cocktail for my time in Amsterdam, too.

 

I will start this - unfortunaltely very short – review by facts and I will divide it into two sections. The Tales and The Spirits.

 

The Tales

 

That bartender, who told me about the ´´Beer policy´´  was working before in a Bar Academy as a bar manager, which speaks for itself. Also, he doesn't see the point of a bartending competittions, because bartending is a bartending and it belongs to a bar and not to the olympic stadium. That is the same point that even I stand for, by the way.

 

The other guy is a winner of a very, very prestigious cocktail competition – Bacardi Legacy. The drink was called 'What If' and in the Tales and Spirits, You can find a memorial for that, also showing the number, how many of these cocktails has been sold in this bar. When I've been there, the number was around 1200+/-.

 

This Guy (the winner) prepared me a cocktail IN A WAY which impressed me and proved the point, that it's a realy great idea to choose this place for a visit. IN A WAY is written like this, because it was not JUST the bartender who prepared the cocktail and it was not JUST the cocktail, which totally got me. It was an improvization based on negroni.

 

Now about THE WAY : he asked me which base I like and which cocktail I like from that base. My answer was obviously High Society. Immediately after he took couple of bottles that I didn't know, he put them straight on the bar and he introduced me every single one of them. He said something about the taste and what will happen, if he will put it toghether into one cocktail and how the ´´final taste will look like´´.

 

The result was a wonderful grapefruity Negroni, shaken and stirred into a beautiful cocktail glass. Very smooth, very fruity - refreshing and just enough bittery cocktail was prepared in such a classy and very stylish way, even if one half of the bar was cleaned and closed already...

The Spirits

 

Location of Tales and Spirits is almost perfect. It is very close to the main street, but it is a bit hidden behind the corner in a  narrow street. The bar inside looks very stylish. Beautiful chandeliers right above the bar, beautiful disposition of the bottles and very nice glassware . The main place is not very big, but thanks to the desing it feels very spacy. You will feel great just by sitting there. Capacity is increased by a possibility to go upstairs or by couple of tables outside. That's something I PERSONALLY don't like, because then the doors have to be open all the time and the bar desk is FOR ME quite close to the entrance. But once again, I have to say that this is just mine point of view and I guess that the rest of the people are immune to this feeling, but in this case I don't feel really INSIDE the bar…

 

Thank god, that as I said at the beginning, the street with these tables is narrow and not so many people are passing around. For summer is a great choice to have this outside sitting anyway, but me personally, I would love to visit this place in winter or in late autumn. Just imagine when it's raining a lot or it's cold or it snows. This crappy weather, together with beautiful desing will create the feeling of a great warm place, where taking a cup of tea or hot wine will make You stay for a very long time...

 

 Maybe you may disagree with me, in dividing this review into this two sections. Maybe You would say, that the first part should be called The Spirits and the second should be The Tales. Honestly, I think it doesn't matter. You may find a different meanings in word ´´spirits´´ and so on…. The most important thing is, that if You like great cocktails with a precise service, excellent and experienced bartenders and great atmosphere - You will find it here.