Pint Of Ale

We read about Café Alto in the Lonely Planet Guide so we decided to stop by one cold February night. it is situated in the neon-lit, “touristy” part of town which is packed full of cheap-looking restaurants and neon signs. We arrived at the doors at about ten to nine and it was closed. We didn’t realise that Café Alto does not open until nine, you see. We got good feelings about the place though because as the hour approached, more and more people began milling around outside. This was a good sign!

When the doors were opened, we made our way inside and were met with a narrow room on two levels. The lower contained the serving area and some seats. Up a couple of stairs was an area with more tables and a small raised stage at the back. We made a bee line for a table near the stage and settled down for the night.

Café Alto is a narrow bar and is dark and dingy inside. This is not a bad thing! It lends an atmosphere to the place that jazz needs. Jazz-related posters, some framed, adorn the walls. It was strangely quiet for the first twenty minutes or so. The two people behind the bar were struggling to get the CD player working and it was causing them much confusion. It was twenty past nine when a third person came to the bar and simply switched the CD on at the socket. The original two were suitably embarrassed!

Live music starts every night at ten and the place got busier and busier as that time approached. Have no hopes of keeping a table (or even a chair) to yourself. Café Alto gets busy. People squeeze together on benches, sit on the staircase that leads to the toilets, crowd around the bar. It’s a wonderful atmosphere and we heard at least four different languages being spoken all around us.

As we were beginning to find in most Amsterdam bars (but our eyes were opened a couple of days later - come back to PoA soon!), there was not much on offer by way of beers. I opted for a cold, local, Amstel.

The music started on time and we stayed for the first set. A Dutch female trumpet player who engaged with the crowd (in English) between songs. The drummer and piano players were both American and the bass player Dutch. The crowd enjoyed the music, as did we, and we had an excellent night. In some ways, Café Alto reminded me of the Duck and Drake in Leeds, which has regular live jazz sessions and a similar good atmosphere during these. The advantage that the D&D has of course, is a wide choice of real cask ale to sup while enjoying the music!

As I was leaving, I picked up my coat, hat and only one glove from the massive pile of coats that had built up on the one free bit of space in the pub. After much scrabbling around, disturbing of many people and crawling around amongst ankles, I gave up the search. So I now only have one glove!