Well, well, well. Don’t I just love a good surprise? Yes, I do. Especially when it involves an old friend. That is why I was extra delighted when I unexpectedly ran into Lucas Hernandez the other day. Or I should say, when he greeted me at his new café ASOP Café.
Lucas has been a familiar face in the Amsterdam coffee scene for years. I first became acquainted to him when he was at Uncommon Coffee. Later, he opened his own high-end coffee omakase concept in Haarlem. I never got a chance to have the full experience but I visited him there during the day. When his Taru Coffee project ended, he focused more on coffee consulting.
“Last year, I went to Dubai countless times,” he said while preparing a gorgeous Honduran lot from Finnish roaster Frukt. When I walked into ASOP Café yesterday, I didn’t even expect to see Lucas. I had this café on my list of ‘cafés-to-visit’ for a long time but had to wait until I got back from my most recent holiday to get a chance to visit.
Somehow it completely escaped me that Lucas was behind this new joint. Nestled into a quiet street in the Jordaan, ASOP is primarily a natural wine shop but the owners also wanted to bring specialty coffee into the mix and Lucas happened to be looking for a new physical space. What they created reminded me a lot of Sey Coffee in Brooklyn. This famed café and roastery is also on a quiet street and located in what could double as a garage.
There is a large communal table and some individual tables. Wine bottles decorate the walls all around. Luckily, there are also a few non-alcoholic options. At the time of my visit, ASOP Café was serving Frukt Coffee and had some bags of Swerl Coffee left on the retail shelf. Lucas told me that he aims to change his roasting partner every quarter and maybe come summer, he will also offer an additional guest roaster.
The unassuming outside and inside hide Lucas’s great passion for coffee and his talent at brewing exceptional brews. If you are seeking a geeky experience that will lift your spirits, then ASOP Café might just be the place for you. In addition to its coffees, ASOP Café also offers some tasty snacks like a lush looking slice of sourdough bread with peanut butter, caramelized apples and cardamom.
As I stood there chatting with Lucas, one of the customers got up to leave and said she was very happy to have found this place. “Everywhere else you need to queue these days,” she lamented. Well, let’s see how long until this secret’s out in the open too.
