Gebroeders Niemeijer

A proper French breakfast under an original art deco ceiling, served from 8:15 with the stone oven going behind the counter.

Issa Niemeijer opened this bakery with his brother Marco in 2008 and has run it alone since 2011, and it is still the most serious bread in the city centre: everything shaped by hand, baked in a large stone-floored oven, no additives and no prepared products. The room is the reason to bring someone here at half past eight on a Tuesday. It is a tall historic space with an original art deco ceiling and a view straight into the open bakery, quiet in the morning, with tables you can spread papers across and a staff that does not hover. The petit dejeuner at 9.95 gets you three petit pains with butter and marmalade, a croissant or brioche, coffee and fresh orange juice, and the extra version at 12.95 adds Dutch farm cheese, gruyere and free-range Italian ham. Coffee is Costadoro espresso from Turin, cheese comes from Fromagerie Kef and the charcuterie from Lindenhoff and Brandt en Levie. The one thing to plan around: it is closed on Mondays, and breakfast service stops at noon sharp. Nieuwendijk is a tourist street with a bad reputation, which makes the calm inside this address feel like a private discovery.

Closed Mondays. Breakfast runs Tuesday to Friday 8:15 to 12:00, lunch from 11:00. Book a table via the Brigaid link on their site if you need a guaranteed seat, otherwise arrive before nine and you will have the room.

Photo: Gebroeders Niemeijer