Café Heuvel

Café Heuvel is located at Prinsengracht 568 in Amsterdam-Centrum. The location is situated in the Centrum district and is referred to in public sources as a brown café. The café bears the name of its first owner, Jan Heuvel. He was followed by his brother Joop, and later Joop’s son Pierre. No further documentation regarding formal founders was found in the researched sources.

The exact opening date isn’t publicly recorded in the provided material. However, it is mentioned that Café Heuvel has been located on the Prinsengracht for decades. A 2025 publication described the establishment as a café with a sixty-year presence at this location. While this phrasing points to a long local history, it doesn’t provide a specific start date.

Robert ten Brink has been the owner of Café Heuvel since 2019, the year he took over the business together with a friend. The café’s own communications emphasize preserving its original character. As such, the establishment doesn’t position itself primarily as a modern coffee shop, but as a “bruine kroeg” (traditional brown cafe) with a permanent place in the neighborhood and along the canal.

In several public sources, the café is linked to the tradition of the bruine kroeg. In a 2023 radio segment, Robert ten Brink appeared as the owner of Café Heuvel, where he spoke about the role of brown cafes and the clientele that visits these establishments. The focus of the source was therefore not on coffee, but on the broader type of hospitality venue.

The café’s own description aligns with this. It states that people from all walks of life sit side-by-side at the bar. This is presented as part of the establishment’s character. It isn’t about a formal program or an organized community, but rather a social function that fits the brown cafe model.

For coffee lovers, the most relevant point is that Café Heuvel offers coffee as part of a broader cafe menu. The official menu lists coffee, espresso, and cappuccino under hot drinks. The available menu also mentions coffee or Americano, espresso macchiato, double espresso, cappuccino, and koffie verkeerd or latte.

Furthermore, the menu features specialty coffee preparations, including Irish coffee and French coffee. These drinks place coffee within a classic cafe context, where hot beverages, alcohol, and bar culture converge. In the researched material, no filter methods, manual brewing techniques, or separate single-origin coffees were documented.

Café Heuvel publicly communicated a switch to Buscaglione coffee. The available information mentions the text “New coffee at Café Heuvel, welcome Buscaglione”. Consequently, Buscaglione is the only explicitly mentioned coffee supplier in the provided material. Further details regarding branding, origin, blends, or roast profiles are not mentioned.

Alongside coffee, a few other suppliers are mentioned. Sources refer to De Wijnschuur for wines and Slagerij Louwman in the Jordaan for meat snacks. The official menu mentions that these snacks are served with sauce and pickles. This information provides limited insight into procurement, but not into full supply chains or contracts.

No concrete sustainability practices are publicly documented in the researched sources. Therefore, nothing is established regarding certification, waste policy, energy use, or sourcing policies for coffee beans. For a factual article, this distinction is important; undocumented points cannot be presented as the café’s policy or choice.

Workshops, coffee tastings, and exhibitions were not found in the available source material. However, there is a municipal publication regarding an application around Koningsdag 2025. This application concerned an event or liquor license at Prinsengracht 568 on April 26, 2025, between 11:00 and 20:00.

A neighborhood platform lists Café Heuvel as a business under the food and drink category. There, the establishment is described as a corner cafe on the Prinsengracht with regular guests. This mention supports the image of a local cafe but contains no specific information about coffee programs or hospitality training.

Café Heuvel appears in various media sources. In 2019, Misset Horeca reported on the takeover by Robert ten Brink. In 2023, NPO Radio 1 featured the café in a segment about brown cafes. In 2025, a photo reportage was published covering the history, ownership lineage, and staff references of the café.

Additionally, Café Heuvel was mentioned in a 2014 Amsterdam weekend guide by Condé Nast Traveler. Later, an Instagram post by Stamgast featured the establishment in a series about Amsterdam's cafés. While these mentions show the café has gained attention beyond its immediate neighborhood, they provide limited detail regarding the quality of the coffee.

Based on the available information, Café Heuvel is best described as a traditional Amsterdam “bruin café” that happens to have coffee on the menu. Documented coffee details are limited to espresso-based drinks, a few classic preparations, and the mentioned supplier Buscaglione. For readers following the specialty coffee sector, the relevance lies primarily in how coffee functions within a traditional café setting, rather than in any detailed coffee expertise.