De Salon Amsterdam opens in the old Buurman de With spot
The team behind Buurtcafé De Tros and Turbo keeps Buurman de With's pizza oven on the Witte de Withstraat and adds a bistro menu and a serious wine cellar.
De Salon Amsterdam opened this month at Witte de Withstraat 102 in De Baarsjes, on the corner that until recently housed Buurman de With. The new neighbourhood restaurant comes from the team behind Buurtcafé De Tros and Turbo, working with sommelier Rosemarie Veldhoen, Barts Boekje reported on 9 November.
Buurman de With said goodbye with a weekend of free pizzas. The wood-fired pizza oven stayed, and it is the most recognisable part of the new menu. Barts Boekje describes the place as a kind of French pub: chansons in the background, seats inside and out, and a crowd that includes families. There is even a children's pizza on the menu.
What De Salon Amsterdam puts on the table
The wood-fired pizza oven stayed, and it is the most recognisable part of the new menu.
The pizzas cost €17.50: one with 'nduja vodka sauce, fior di latte and pickled chillies, and one with crème fraîche, hay-aged cheese, caramelised onion and roasted garlic, according to the menu on the restaurant's own website. Alongside them are smaller dishes such as steak tartare with tarama and string fries (€14) and mackerel with fermented chilli and barbecued grapes (€14). The most expensive mains are pork neck steak with pepper sauce and redfish with fennel and tomato beurre blanc, both €23. Dessert includes a crunchy dame blanche for €10.
For drinks there is a separate snack menu, including squid skewers with chimichurri (€13.50), chicken wings with hot sauce and ranch dip (€12) and mussels with bottarga sauce (€12). Anyone who comes in just for a glass does not have to sit empty-handed.
A serious wine cellar in a neighbourhood place
Besides De Salon, Veldhoen also works at wine importer Bolomey. The list leans towards natural wine, though not the heavy kind, according to Barts Boekje. Bottles on the list run from roughly €32 to €90, and guests who want to go further are pointed to a separate cabinet of red wines. On tap are Guinness, cider and vermouth among others, Barts Boekje wrote; EatStreet also lists lambic from Cantillon.
De Salon works with walk-ins, inside and outside, and keeps a limited number of tables for reservations every evening. It opens on Monday, Thursday and Friday from 5 pm and at weekends from noon; on Tuesday and Wednesday De Salon Amsterdam is closed.
That puts it in a run of Amsterdam openings this autumn that pair wine with simple food, such as Toscanini's new Enoteca Capri wine bar in the Jordaan. Whether the pizza oven draws guests from beyond the neighbourhood, De Salon Amsterdam will only find out after the first winter months, when the terrace empties and only the dining room is left.
