Tijn Akersloot

The surfers' pavilion at the quiet south end, now cooking almost everything over fire.

Walk south along the boulevard until the crowds thin and the dunes of the Waterleidingduinen take over, and you hit Tijn Akersloot, the year-round pavilion that has anchored this end of Zandvoort since 1965. It has always been the surfers' living room, all driftwood and salt-crusted windows, but the kitchen grew up: they now cook mainly over open fire, and it shows up on the plate in char and smoke rather than menu poetry. Thin stone-oven pizzas, burgers for the wetsuit crowd, fish and bavette off the flames, and on hot evenings a barbecue that runs until the sun drops into the sea directly in front of the deck. On sunny days the kiosk opens for people who refuse to leave the sand. Come at golden hour, the whole room turns amber.

Take whatever fish is coming off the open fire that day and eat it on the terrace at sunset.

Photo: Haarlem City Blog