In this episode, Jim and Irma talk to Henk de Vries, founder of the Bulldog. In a month's time, he will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his coffee shop, an enterprise that started in a basement on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal and grew into an international household name.
From basement to coffee shop The Bulldog
In 1975, Henk started in the basement of a sex cinema on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal. What was there didn't feel right. "I don't want to earn my living that way," he says. He threw in all the sex stuff and made way for something new: a living room where local residents could safely sit and smoke cannabis.
From the first moment, one rule applied: no hard drugs.
"I didn't step over that," says Henk. "Not then, not now."
Youth on the Seawall
Henk talks openly about his childhood in a mixed Jewish-Christian family. The neighbourhood was impoverished but, according to him, full of life. "It was the best neighbourhood in Amsterdam," he says. In his late teens, he bought his first property there. His goal: to bring back the real neighbourhood.
He remembers how cafes, shops and family businesses gave colour to the street. "My heart is still there," he says.
Setting boundaries and standing tall
The coffee shop quickly became popular, but it also brought risks. Henk had to deal with criminals, the judiciary and the tax authorities. "I needed very strong legs," he says. Yet he always stuck to his principled dividing line: cannabis yes, hard drugs never.
He describes how many friends got into hard drugs in the 1970s and how, on the contrary, he managed to keep others away from cocaine and heroin. "There were some who managed to make the switch and stayed with a stikkie," he says.
The neighbourhood and the future
Henk worries about the current policy around the I-criterion, which would ban tourists from coffee shops. "Deadly," he calls it. According to him, it leads directly to street dealing and a return to the 1970s. "Then it will become one big ghetto again."
Pride and life lessons
Henk looks proudly at his children and grandchildren. He tells how his mother, an Auschwitz survivor, instilled values in him. And how Major Bosshardt taught him structure and humanity as a young boy.
His main advice, looking back on his life?
"There is always a bright spot. You just have to keep standing until you see it."
Previous episode
The previous episode featured a special with Jim and the Ouwehoeren, twins Martine and Louise Fokkens. They told candidly about their years in the Red Light District, a raw addition to Henk's story, which shows the same neighbourhood from a very different perspective. Listen to it here!
