Batavia Public House to open on former Tales & Spirits site

Batavia Public House opens in January on the Lijnbaanssteeg in Amsterdam, in the space that cocktail bar Tales & Spirits occupied until its bankruptcy this spring. Behind the new venue are bartenders Jimmy Hu and Samuel Stok, for whom it is the first business they have run together.

Trade magazine Entree reported the plans on 9 November. Hu and Stok call their concept a cocktail pub: an old-fashioned Amsterdam brown café with cocktails at its centre, alongside seasonal food and a short list of Dutch wines by the glass. They told the magazine they want to work as much as possible with local farmers, distilleries, producers and suppliers.

Hu was named Best Bartender at the Entree Awards in November 2025, a year after finishing third. He has worked behind the bar at Bar TwentySeven, among others, and freelanced at several Amsterdam bars. Stok worked at The Tailor in Amsterdam, at Brass Boer on Bonaire and at MosaCaña on Curaçao, and came third in the NBC Bartender Competition last year.

A brown café built around cocktails is meant to give the old Tales & Spirits address a second life.

What Batavia Public House will look like

The venue takes up two listed buildings at Lijnbaanssteeg 5-7, which date from 1734 and were joined in 1971. Only the ground-floor bar opens at first, with room for about 40 guests. The first floor is still being renovated and should add around 30 seats later on, and a terrace with about 12 seats is also planned. Serving lunch and opening seven days a week are longer-term goals, according to the owners.

The interior is meant to bring back the character of old Amsterdam, with candlelight, chandeliers, antiques and art. Hu and Stok also want the history of the building and the alley to show up in the decor and on the menus. Prices and an exact opening date have not yet been announced.

An address with a cocktail past

Tales & Spirits opened on the alley in 2012, founded by Lydia Soedadi and Boudewijn Mesritz. The bar appeared on The World's 50 Best Bars list from 2014, peaking at 31st place in 2018, and was named the best cocktail bar in the Netherlands by Gault&Millau in 2019. On 28 April 2026 the Amsterdam district court declared Tales & Spirits B.V. bankrupt. No cause has been made public.

The building was a hospitality address long before that. From 1971 it housed restaurant De Gravenmolen, which later won a Michelin star, followed by Taverne De Jonge Gravenmolen.

The opening adds a new name to the city centre, where many of the best cocktail bars in Amsterdam sit within walking distance of each other. Whether a brown café with cocktails gives this address a second long life will become clear from January.