Café Herberg de Koppelpaarden
Markt 22, Assen. Tel: 0592-318633
Opening hours: Tue - Thu: 14:00 - 01:00, Fri - Sat 14:00 - 02:00, Sun: 15:00 - 01:00
Number of draught beers: 10
Number of bottled beers: 10
Regular draught beers: Hertog Jan Pils Palm Blanche de Bruxelles Leffe blond Christoffel Leffe dubbel Kilkenny Guinness Stout Grimbergen dubbel La Chouffe
Food: Snacks.
About as close as you'll get to a beer pub in this neck of the woods. As you can see from the photo, it's a traditional about mid-brown in style. Thesee are their bottled beers: Korenwolf Witbier (winter only), Leffe Tripel, Westmalle Tripel, Duvel, Bellevue Kriek, Corona, Desperados, Hoegaarden Grand Cru, Pauwel kwak, Duchesse de Bourgogne.
Rating:	Public transport:

Belgisch Café de Pintelier
Kleine Kromme Elleboog 9, 9712 BG Groningen. Tel: 050 - 318 5100 Fax: 050 - 311 9358 http://www.pintelier.nl/
Opening hours: Sun - Wed 15.00 - 02.00, Thur - Sat 15.00 - 03.00
Number of draught beers: 10
Number of bottled beers: +-45
Regular draught beers: Jupiler (5%) Palm (5%) Hoegaarden Witbier (5%) De Koninck (5%) Pauwel Kwak
Food: Snacks €2-4. Duvel €3, pils €1.80.
A 1930's style brown café that opened in 1997. It's located on a small alleyway not far from the main square. As well as being an ABT member, it's also part of the Genevergenootschap (Genever Society) and sells 45 Belgian, Dutch and French genevers. Despite the corner location and lots of windows there's little light inside because: it's on a narrow alleyway it's 15:50 and January a layer of cloud stretches from here to Maastricht The beer selection's pretty good. Lots of christmas beers. I'm sipping a Gouden Carolus Kerst. Very spicy, very nice.
Rating: ****	Public transport:

Paard van Troje
Kleine Kromme Elleboog 5, 9712 BS Groningen. Tel.: 050 - 312 0050 Email: pvt@centaurus.nl
Opening hours: Mon - Sat 16:00 - 02:00, Sun 20:00 - 02:00
Number of draught beers: 9
Number of bottled beers: +-50
Regular draught beers:
Food:
Groningen's two principal beer cafés are usefully only a couple of doors away from each other in a tiny street just off the market place.
Rating:	Public transport:

Der Witz
Grote Markt 47, 9711 LX Groningen. Tel: 050 - 314 1417 Email: info@derwitz.nl http://www.derwitz.nl/
Opening hours:
Number of draught beers: 7
Number of bottled beers: 10
Regular draught beers: Hertog Jan Pils (5%) Beck's Speciale Palm (5%) Hoegaarden Witbier (5%) Leffe Blond Leffe Bruin Franziskaner Hefeweizen
Food: Snacks €2-5. Duvel €3.10, pils €1.80.
A long, narrow pub in a typical old Dutch house in a corner of the Grote Markt. For some reason it has a German theme (Der Witz means "The Joke") and sells several German beers and Korn. The draught beer selection is like a list of Inbev's most famous acquisitions. I'm sure this will become a common sight in their Dutch pubs. The one brewery not represented is Dommelsch, the largest one they own in Holland. A sure sign they don't figure in IInbev's logterm plans. The collection of old cack - including several trumpets, as Alexei helpfully pointed out - is convincingly random and the walls have that distinctive nicotine shade. How will brown cafes become brown after the smoking ban? An opportunity for paint manufacturers.
Rating: **	Public transport:

Van Erp Dranken
Grote Kromme Elleboog 16, 9712 BK Groningen. Tel.: 050 - 312 6414 Fax: 050 - 313 9324 http://www.vanerpwijn.nl/
Opening hours: Mon 13:00 - 18:30, Tue, Wed, Fri 10:00 - 18:30, Thur 10:00 - 21:00, Sat 10:00 - 17:30
Number of draught beers:
Number of bottled beers: 500
Regular draught beers:
Food:
A specialist beer shop in the centre of Groningen. The selection is pretty good - they even havs a few Scandi beers. Well worth taking a look.
Rating: ****	Public transport:

Grand café De Dikke Van Dale
Nieuwestad 69, 8911CK Leeuwarden. Tel.: 058-2990563 info@dedikkevandale.nl
Opening hours: Mon - Wed 11:00 - 02:00, Thur - Sat 11:00 - 03:00, Sun 12:00 - 02:00
Number of draught beers: 5
Number of bottled beers: 6
Regular draught beers: Hertog Jan Pils (5%) Speciale Palm (5%) Hoegaarden Witbier (5%) Leffe Blond Hertog Jan Grand Prestige
Food: Snacks €4-9, meals €14-15 . Pils €1.90
The equivalent name in English of this pub would be the Oxford Unabridged Dictionary. Not that snappy, is it? De Dikke van Dale runs more easily off the tongue.. Holland has its equivalent of off-the shelf nostalgia, similar to the fake Victoriana so beloved of crap British pub chains. That's what you'll find in van Dale, though done with considerably more class (and at greater expense). The single long, thin room has panelled walls and bare borad floors. And shelf after shelf of fake books. Seeing Grand Prestige on draught was a pleasant surprise. I can't remember seeing it before. Very welcome on a chilly winter day.
Rating: **	Public transport:

De Strohoed Cafe
Eewal 72b, 8911 GV Leeuwarden. Tel.: 058 - 212 7499
Opening hours: Mon - Thur 16:00 - 01:00, Fri - Sat 16:00 - 02:00, Sun 16:00 - 01:00
Number of draught beers: 8
Number of bottled beers: +-60
Regular draught beers: Heineken Pils Speciale Palm (5%) De Koninck (5%) Affligem Blond Weihenstephan Hefeweizen
Food: Snacks.Beer Pils €1.90, Duvel €3.20
Holland's northernm provinces aren't great for beer pubs. Let's be honest, they're crap. De Strohoed (the Straw Hat) is one of just a handful. I'm starting to run out of interesting new ways to say long, thin, bare wooden boards, bar along one wall. A typical brown cafe, really. Just with more different beers. There's an upright piano, too. I didn't see it in use, but wew were there just after opening time. Most of the decent beers are the usual Belgians - the Tappist, St. Bernardus, Gouden Carolus, Moinette. Decent enough. Certainly enough to entertain me for an hour or two. They have around ten German beers, too. Sadly, pretty dull for the most part - Jever, Diebels Alt, Warsteiner, Bitburger.
Rating: ****	Public transport:

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