On a short stopover in Amsterdam I had to decide if I am either gonna visit Door 74 or Tales & Spirits. They were on my radar for a while. Since it was a Sunday stopover, Tales & Spirits was closed so the choice was an easy one. The black door that shows the entrance is not marked and you only know the bar is there if you actually want to visit. The host slides the small spyhole open to see who was ringing. Shortly afterwards the door opens and an elegantly dressed bartender appears. Seconds later you find yourself inside a dimly lit room with the bar on the right hand side while on the left there are 4 sofa places and one high bar table. The 4 niche places are rather bright while the bar is very dimly which gives a good contrast in the end but some people might find it too bright at the tables while at the same time too dark at the bar. The ceiling helps to illuminate the place since you find stylish metal tiles like in made-vintage places in New York. A nice touch. The niche black leather sofas and seats in the back of the room together with the parquet floor come across as slightly cheap and don’t fit well with the bar which is nicely designed.
Timo’s creation
The counter fits around 10 people that allows them to enjoy the craft of the bartender. A creative idea indeed and you really wanna take that cute thing home. After we got some tasty nut mix and an assortment of delicious olives, I wanted to test Timo’s own creation of a cocktail that should have cognac or rum in it, a classical stirred short cocktail and not being too sweet. What i got was a drink composed of Napoleon cognac, Lillet rose, sexy bitters and homemade pear and rose bitter. Sounded like an interesting combination. The cocktail was on the dry side and in my opinion was lacking a bit of complexity especially towards the end. It was not something I would order again. The cocktails are presented on a white paper napkin. A no go in a high end cocktail bar. Comes across as cheap, it does not present well plus when you get drinks in a chilled glass, the napkin is useless after just a few minutes. That would definitely something to improve. To continue, I found an interesting composition in the menu called Kookaburra, Verdelho madeira medium dry, professore vermouth, orange flower water, del maguey santa caterina. A pleasant composition with a lot of honey flavours.Very delicious. To round off the evening a perfectly executed Sazerac could not be missed. The sweeter cocktails from the menu are also mixed with attention to detail and lovely decorations. The bar has a non-smoking policy so you have to go outside to the street to smoke your cigarette. As a final note, Door 74 has even a cute stowaway in the bar that might upset some high heeled ladies. A speedy mouse was having some fun between the sofas and tables, not to the amusement of the hosts. The poor thing probably won’t be alive the next time I will be coming back since the owner is on the warpath with the little creature. The high heeled lady shall feel comfy and shall drink without sorrow. Well so they should.
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