You walk down Gravenstraat, the Dam just behind you, and you see it: a building doing exactly what it was built for four hundred years ago. Founded in 1619, De Drie Fleschjes is the oldest gin tasting room in the city. Owner Johannes Bulthuis runs the place the way it should be run: no unnecessary modernizations, just a warm welcome and drinks that ring true.
The most talked about piece of inventory is the liquor organ. Fifty barrels, neatly arranged side by side, and the only one still working in all of the city. From it comes the barrel-aged Bols gin, the heart of the menu. You prefer to drink that gin here as a kopstootje: a glass of gin alongside a freshly tapped beer. The choice is also there: Gulpener Pils, Biologisch-Weizen, Bolleke de Koninck or a Jopen seasonal beer. The team will help you choose which combination suits you. Besides the barrel-aged gin, they also serve young gin and Corenwyn from the Bols range.
The interior is 17th-century, and that is not a choice of style but simply reality. The low ceilings, the wood, the display case with historic mayor's flasks: this is what a tasting room has always looked like. There are also cocktails on the menu, but even those are served Amsterdam-style. Order a Boswandeling, a Stuk in je Kraag or a Waltz for Debby, and you get the drink in a traditional tulip glass. Full to the brim, so you have to bend over before you can take it. Literally bending over for the drink.
Fifty barrels on the wall, a drink on the table, and a place that has known what it is doing for four hundred years.
De Drie Fleschjes is open daily. Monday through Saturday from two o'clock, on Sundays a little later. The location is easy to find, but still feels like a discovery: a side street next to the Nieuwe Kerk, just away from the bustle of Dam Square. Fifty barrels on the wall, a drink on the table, and a place that has known what it's doing for four hundred years. It's not that hard.