Élan Amsterdam: the Roux team takes over the old Maris Piper
Roos Bierhoff, Allon Niesen and chef Sebastiano Guglielmucci open a 120-seat à la carte restaurant on the Frans Halsstraat in early November, with mains at €25 to €30.
Élan Amsterdam opens in early November on the Frans Halsstraat, where the owners of Jordaan restaurant Roux, Roos Bierhoff and Allon Niesen, take over the corner site that housed Maris Piper and, since March, Neo Bistro. Roux's chef de cuisine, Sebastiano Guglielmucci, becomes chef and co-owner, Misset Horeca reported on 25 September.
The address sits on the border of De Pijp and Oud-Zuid, and it is large by city standards: about 120 seats inside and around 50 on the terrace, according to Misset Horeca. Roux, on the Westerstraat, is a French-based kitchen with a smaller room; Élan is meant to work at a different pace.
What Élan Amsterdam will serve
A room of 170 seats at €25 to €30 a main course needs volume every night.
The plan is an accessible à la carte menu with generous portions and a few large dishes to share, starters around €15 and mains between €25 and €30, with an affordable wine list. The owners describe the idea as eating at a friend's house: good food and attention to the guest without a formal setting, Entree Magazine wrote. The interior mixes marble, mirrors, wood, leather and exposed brick.
The name is French for energy and drive. Niesen also framed the move as a staffing decision: a second restaurant creates room for Guglielmucci to grow and for cooks at Roux to move up. In a city where kitchen staff are hard to keep, a promotion path is part of the business plan.
For visitors working out where the new opening fits, our guide to what to eat in Amsterdam maps the dishes and neighbourhoods around it.
A corner that keeps changing hands
The site has had a busy year. Maris Piper passed to Vagarsh Mogatseljan after the split of the Breda Group, and he relaunched it as Neo Bistro, a European-leaning bistro, in March 2026. Six months later it changes owners again. The wider market is steadier than that history suggests: Dutch hospitality bankruptcies have eased from last year's peak.
Élan's test is simple arithmetic. A room of 170 seats at €25 to €30 a main course needs volume every night, not just a good opening month.
