Almost anything is possible at the famous Rotterdam café De Schouw

Last Sunday, Tineke Speksnijder, owner of café De Schouw in the Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam, first broke the news to a few regulars. She was almost in tears, she nods to a table in the empty store. She had been postponing the decision for months, having sleepless nights, until recently she finally took the plunge.

She will stop at De Schouw – the 82-year-old café that is a household name among poets, journalists and artists in particular. The property is “fully cooked”, she wrote in a post on Facebook. “The walls crack, the upper part moves when the wind blows hard.” And there’s always water in the basement. The owner to whom Speksnijder rented the property from 1870 had it demolished and rebuilt. Work will begin in January and will last at least a year.

Starting over in the same place, Speksnijder doesn’t like that. The shop as it is today, with a classic bar and old posters on the wall, is his Schouw. Last week, she signed the sales contract; it sells the goodwill (“the license, the content, the goodwill, the name”) to the owner of the asset. She can’t say what she gets out of it.

Maintain Identity

This threatens to put an end to the famous café, which has retained its identity in the changing and increasingly popular Witte de Withstraat. Although it is possible that another owner will continue the cafe under the same name, in a new jacket, after the renovation. But with the departure of Speksnijder, the soul should disappear from the cafe. “We often say: this Fireplace is me.” More than twenty years ago she started as a bartender, nine years ago she became an owner.

A book presentation? “Okay, man.” A literary drink? “Yeah, we’ll manage. And a regular poetry evening – the successful “Poetsclub”? Of course she does. Almost everything is possible in De Schouw. “Unless you’re bored with shit, that’s just not possible. She never had security guards. “I myself am the best carrier.”

The late Jules Deelder liked to come here, Wilfried de Jong still comes here. Artist Bob van Persie, the father of former professional footballer Robin, was a bartender there. Journalists from NRC, The free people and AD, formerly with editorial offices around the corner, were regular guests, venting after the paper’s ‘fall’. “It was always blue with smoke,” says a booklet published on the occasion of the 75th anniversary. It is today the favorite pub of Fresh concretea local journalism platform.

An island in the Witte de With

Speksnijder leafs through the booklet, points to a black-and-white photo from 1979 in a full Schouw. “This property has so much history.” It is called an island in the Witte de With. “Because it’s different from other things. It’s the oldest cafe, a stubborn cafe. Opened September 12, 1940 as a “chic bodega,” it says in the anniversary booklet, then a “worn brown pub” and now an “authentic cafe.”

The first week of January will be dominated by goodbyes. “You’re going to have to swallow,” says Speksnijder (his age? “Let’s not add that”). Demolition should begin mid-January. She takes her most precious memories with her. “A few posters, a painting, all my Feyenoord stuff.”

She will be traveling a lot soon. Argentina, to learn Spanish and take tango lessons. Australia, New Zealand and Asia want to see them. “And later I buy a motorhome and a dog and we drive through Europe.” In summer, she would like to redo some restoration work. But De Schouw is a thing of the past for her.