Sometimes less is just more. Bar Copa is the smallest bar in the Balthazar family and seems almost proud of it. No reservation system, no elaborate menu, no frills. Wine on tap and charcuterie. That's it. Friday and Saturday from five o'clock, walk-in, and then see if there's room.
The Balthazar family is familiar to most Amsterdam residents: Balthazar's Kitchen in the Jordaan has been an established name for years, Bar Parry and Café Cenc are the more recent additions. Bar Copa is the newest, and also the smallest of the bunch. The bar sits on the first floor of Vijzelgracht 3, in a canal house, literally next to Café Cenc at number 5h. You can walk from one place to another in no time.
The concept is deliberately kept compact. Wine on tap, with a changing selection, so there is always something new to discover. Along with a plate of charcuterie. That's all it needs to be. The bar serves as a neighborhood bar for the area around Vijzelgracht and Prinsengracht, within walking distance of Leidseplein and the canals. A place to catch up after work, or to start the evening before going somewhere else.
Wine on tap, a plate of charcuterie, no reservations and open two nights a week. That's all it needs to be.
Wine on tap is not yet the most obvious choice in the Netherlands, but it has advantages: less waste, better preservation and often a sharper price point. At Bar Copa, it takes center stage as the only thing you get to drink. No cocktail list, no beer list. Just wine, well-preserved and freshly tapped. For those for whom that sounds too limited: Café Cenc sits next door. But for those looking for exactly this, a no-nonsense place to start the evening off right, Bar Copa is exactly what it should be.