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| The Dutch borrel is a company with a local service area. | |
Drinks with snacks after work, usually Friday afternoon. A social institution with its own rules.
The Friday drink
A fixed part of Dutch working life, often in the office and then in a café. The contraction vrijmibo is now ordinary Dutch.
What comes with it
Bitterballen, cheese cubes with mustard, sausage, olives. A shared bowl and nobody counts.
The word
Borrel originally meant a glass of jenever. Now it covers the whole occasion: the drink, the snacks and the gathering.
The bittergarnituur
The name for the standard fried snack platter on menus. Every café has one, and the price says little about quality.
How long it lasts
Officially an hour, in practice longer. The borrel often runs into dinner, which is not an accident but the point.
Where to do it
Brown cafés and eetcafés, from about four o’clock, in any city.
Where to try it
Places in our directory that serve this
Cafe in Amsterdam 164 · Bar in Utrecht 63 · Cafe in Den Haag 77 · Bar in Eindhoven 64