Cocktail bar
Tales and Spirits on Lijnbaanssteeg is the Amsterdam cocktail boudoir of the old guard, antique cabinets, chandeliers, drinks served in vintage glassware.
Signature drink: Vintage-glass cocktails with house infusions
Food: Snacks and bar plates
Speakeasy cocktail bar
Door 74 on Reguliersdwarsstraat is the Amsterdam speakeasy that opened the city's cocktail wave, by reservation only, behind an unmarked door, art-deco-trimmed.
Signature drink: Pre-prohibition classics, seasonal menu
Food: No food
Cocktail bar
Hiding in Plain Sight on Rapenburg is the Amsterdam American-style cocktail bar, big-windowed despite the speakeasy framing, sharp menu, unfussy room.
Signature drink: Seasonal menu, riffs on the Manhattan
Food: No food
Brown cafe
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
Brown cafe
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
Brown cafe
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