Bar Basquiat

The Javastraat corner bar where the whole Indische Buurt eventually washes up.

Every good street needs a corner like this one. Bar Basquiat holds down Javastraat and Sumatrastraat with a wraparound terrace of beer benches, a mint-green facade, and an interior riffing on Jean-Michel Basquiat without turning into a theme park. The kitchen sends out globe-trotting street food, tacos in several persuasions, crackly fried things, enough vegetarian options to keep a mixed table happy, and the bar backs it with craft beer, sharp cocktails and natural-leaning wines. Weekends it opens at ten for breakfast and doesn't stop until two the next morning, with DJs pushing the volume up as the plates get smaller. The Infatuation rates it; more tellingly, so does everyone within four blocks. It's not fine dining and never wanted to be, it's the neighbourhood's living room with better tacos.

A round of the tacos with a cold Basquiat beer; add whatever's fried that week.

Photo: Bar Basquiat