Hiding in Plain Sight on Rapenburg is the Amsterdam American-style cocktail bar, big-windowed despite the speakeasy framing, sharp menu, unfussy room.
Food program: No food
Address: Rapenburg 18, 1011 TX Amsterdam
Café Hoppe on Spui has poured Amsterdam jenever and beer since 1670, the brown cafe with the dark-wood interior and the stand-at-the-bar after-work crowd.
Signature drink: Jenever, Dutch pilsner on tap
Food: Bitterballen, cheese, bar snacks
Café 't Smalle on Egelantiersgracht in the Jordaan is the Amsterdam canal-side brown cafe with the postcard terrace, the building going back to a 1780 distillery.
Signature drink: Jenever, Belgian and Dutch ale
Food: Bar snacks
In 't Aepjen on Zeedijk occupies an Amsterdam building dating to 1475, one of two surviving wooden facades, the brown cafe with the longest backstory.
Signature drink: Jenever, classic Dutch beer
Food: Bar snacks
Café Papeneiland on the corner of Prinsengracht and Brouwersgracht is the Amsterdam brown cafe from 1642, the apple pie inside almost as canonical as Winkel 43.
Signature drink: Jenever, beer on tap, coffee with apple pie
Food: Apple pie, bitterballen, cheese
Café de Reiger on Nieuwe Leliestraat in the Jordaan is the Amsterdam eetcafe with the back-room kitchen, brown-cafe service out front, no-frills dinners to follow.
Signature drink: Belgian beer, jenever, house wine
Food: Daily-changing kitchen, classics
Twenty Third Bar at Hotel Okura sits next to Ciel Bleu on the top floor, the Amsterdam cocktail bar with the city's most generous view across the city.
Signature drink: Japanese-inflected cocktails with city view
Food: Bar snacks, oysters
