The Village Coffee & Music – Utrecht (NL)

There is a German saying that goes: “Gut Ding will Weile haben”, which roughly translates to “good things take a while”. This strikes me as the most fitting way to describe the 8 years it took old friends Angelo van de Weerd and Lennaert Meijboom to get from initial idea to finished product. The product in question is nothing less than Utrecht’s funkiest and most cosmopolitan specialty coffee shop: The Village Coffee & Music.

It’s commonly accepted that the US and Australian coffee cultures have significantly influenced the European specialty coffee movement and nowhere is this more obvious than when stepping into The Village. If you close your eyes for a second and imagine you are somewhere else you could easily find yourself sipping a delicious Flat White in Melbourne or enjoying a perfectly made pour over in Portland.

WhileI lean onto the bar to watch Angelo work his magic he tells me: “Lennaert and I were total lowlives man – haha. No, I’m just kidding. We were both doing our thing when we sort of simultaneously fell in love with specialty coffee. I was touring the US with my former record label when I came across all those small indie coffee bars that just made the most incredible coffee you have ever tasted. At the same time, Lennaert was working for a surfing company in Hawaii where he could basically see the local coffee plantations from his workplace and he also kind of got obsessed with coffee. When we got back to The Netherlands we knew exactly what we had to do, it just took a really long time, haha.”

As Amsterdam’s little brother, Utrecht has always had a bit of an underdog image, but while the city on the Amstel can at times feel a bit too hip and slightly overrated, Utrecht happily continues to transform itself into a real alternative for a fun and cosmopolitan lifestyle. You just need to go for a little wander around its laid back streets with its diverse restaurants, shops, bars and music venues to realize that it’s got a hell of a lot going on and you can definitely feel this vibe rubbing off on The Village. Or maybe it’s the other way around?

When I visited Utrecht late last year to attend the city’s “Le Guess Who” festival, The Village was hosting a number of live music events, which given its name, is obviously one huge part of the experience. For Angelo and Lennaert it was just another step towards creating the perfect spot for hanging out, catching up, drinking great coffee and listening to awesome tunes. Don’t even dare to ask for the Wifi password because, oh no honey boo boo, there’s no Wifi here. Panic, shock, horror! Not even my 3G worked here. There must be a conspiracy to get us talking!

It might not be a surprise that a lot of the The Village’s customers are Utrecht’s trendsetting hipsters, sporting blue hair, vintage sunglasses and self-made outfits, but what is truly great is that it has even helped slightly more conservative Dutch people to discover the world of specialty coffee. “Sometimes people come in here not really sure what to expect. They order an Espresso and after drinking it they pull a funny face because it’s so smooth and light and basically the total opposite to what they’re normally used to. Well, it’s supposed to be bit fresh and light. It’s only bloody fruit after all!”, Angelo tells me with a big smile on his face.

Although most of us, who have full time jobs, are used to working 50-60 hour weeks, the guys who run this place are closer to a weekly tally of around 60-70 hours. “We’re here every day from morning till evening and it’s damn hard work, but very fun because we just love what we do”, Lennert confirms.

The hard work is clearly paying off. In the most recent poll of The Netherland’s 10 best coffee bars by Dutch daily “Algemeen Dagblad”, The Village Coffee & Music came in 5th place overall. Not bad for someone who’s only been around for 2 years.

For the founding fathers it was important to create a no bullshit sort of place. They just want to make the best coffee in town and not waste their time putting things on the menu that they’re not good at making themselves. Therefore choosing the right coffee supplier was almost as important as finding the right location. “If the quality isn’t right, it’s an almost hopeless battle”, they tell me.

After evaluating a lot of possible partners, they ended up choosing to work exclusively with Caffènation who provide their regular blends as well as monthly filter and Espresso specials that allow your tongue to travel to places like Zimbabwe, Panama, Guatemala and Burundi.

In fact the best thing you can do is tell one of the boys to surprise you with something delicious, choose a seat, leave your bloody phone in your pocket and just do some people watching. And if you end up popping in on a Friday afternoon, you might even catch a live music performance.

Really, what more can you ask for?