On Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, some 67 cafes in Amsterdam and the surrounding area will celebrate their living room feel with additional programs such as live music, gin tastings or a drink on the house. The day puts the traditional brown café in the spotlight - the character, the stories, the regulars - all at the fingertips of new audiences.
In many pubs, you can participate in pub tours - a kind of scavenger hunt of participating places - where you can create your own route via an app or map. Restaurants put an extra gear on their bar program and some pubs even open earlier or hold surprises.
The strength of this celebration of brown café day lies in recognition as well as renewal. Old pubs that are normally barely noticeable from the outside open up and invite you in. You will discover stories of quiet corners, bar jobs, old piano music. For many it will be a walk down memory lane.
"On this day the whispers of wood, bar, glass and stories that would otherwise go untold are heard."
For visitors, it is a chance to get to know cafes outside the well-known circuit: sometimes in inner streets, on squares, or just cafes you already knew but never visited. The diversity is great: from cafes with live music to intimate tasting rooms.