The Unwritten Guide to Coffee & Cake: Amsterdam

Welcome to the second installment of Coffee & Cake in Amsterdam. Today’s cafe find satiates not only your coffee craving and sweet tooth but also your ear drums. That’s because my next cafe discovery is housed inside of an expansive music store. With every record imaginable and loads of cds (for those of us who still use cds? anyone?), you can drift for hours discovering new music or you can sit with a satisfying cup of coffee and a delectable slice of cake. I opted for the latter.

Meet Concerto.

In a few words Concerto is: friendly, enveloping, diverse, unpretentious, comfortably cluttered

[for those of you who are just here for the vital info, you can skip down a bit to where I answer the basic coffee and cake questions]

Concerto takes up almost the whole block. If you are going just for the cafe, choose the last entrance (when looking straight on at the building).

Once your inside, place your order and head upstairs to find a seat, or drift from room to room, exploring different musical tastes while your drink is being made.

If you would rather feast your eyes than your ears, then Concerto’s upstairs will make you a happy camper. Books of all shapes and colors mingle happily with the guests.

The nice part of Concerto is that it has the right level of background noise where no one can over-hear your conversation but it isn’t too loud where you can’t think. Many people were set up with their computers working, so wifi is an option for those of you who need your internet fix. They also regularly host musicians and album presentations, check out their calendar for the latest lineup.

Now on to the coffee and cake evaluation:

The coffee was definitely well worth the visit. Concerto brews Single Estate coffee beans, with two options to choose from. When I was there, Guatemala and Brazil were on deck. You could tell they were high quality and fresh beans because there was no bite to the espresso. It was smooth and full of complexity.

-The Coffee Questions-

What kind of coffee do they use? Single Estate, fair trade, organic/bio

How is it brewed? Espresso machine (la marazocco), filter coffee (Chemex).

What kind of milk do they have? Whole milk and soy milk, no koffie melk (a Dutch thing, essentially evaporated milk that blends nicely with coffee).

What’s on the menu? Americano, filter coffee, espresso, espresso macchiato, espresso doppio, cappuccino, coffee verkeerd, latte macchiato. With changing bean blends (currently a Kenyan blend for filter and Rwandan and Guatemalan for espresso drinks).

What’s the price? From 2-3 euro.

What sweeteners are offered? Organic, cane sugar.

Concerto offers a decent selection of cakes to choose from. Since arriving in Amsterdam, I discovered this little thing called spekkoek, which is a Dutch-Indonesian layered cake that tastes a bit like gingerbread. It is delicious and here it was only 1 euro so I jumped at this choice. The other cakes looked equally tasty though, some are made in house and some are baked across the street at a respected bakery called Kuyt.

-The Cake Questions-

What’s on the menu?Apple tart, apple cake from Patisserie Kuyt, homemade carrot cake, spekkoek, diverse bio cookies, a few chocolate selections.

Are the ingredients bio/organic? Some, not all.

Are there vegan options? No.

What’s the price? From 1 to 4 euro.

How are the portions? The slices are decently sized, not very big but not too small either.

Other food options? They have a limited lunch menu with soup and tostis (essentially grilled cheese sandwiches for the non-Dutch reader).

If a casual environment and a top-knotch espresso drink are on your want list this week, then head over to Concerto where the music and book browsing comes free.