Espressobar Hugo - Gorinchem
- Rosy Vineyard
- Jan 13, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 17, 2020
Recall the last time you were in the middle of your favourite series to find out how they brutally replaced one of your favourite characters. The other characters pretend like nothing changed and you start to nibble your nails, frown intensely and rave indignantly about what lunatics are in the production team: “go get lost you bunch of (gentle swear word)”. That’s exactly how I feel when the cookie to my coffee is missing. I’ve came to realize recently that it’s no international custom, but many people in Holland have high expectations about ‘the little side snack’ when ordering a hot beverage. So really: the lack of a small caramel waffle or cacao bean on the saucer is like replacing Phoebe in Friends or changing her Smelly Cat song into Sassy Rat.
Dutch coffee cafés can seriously differentiate themselves from competitors with a unique sweetness like Douwe Egberts’ little macaroon and Dudok’s exquisite shortbread.
A more local version of such a signature snack is found at Hugo - a small hipster cafe in my beloved hometown that I like to call G’town. From the day they opened the village couldn’t stop talking about their chunky, chestnut brown, balanced sweet ‘n salty chocolate treasures. ‘Brownie’ simply doesn’t cover the gem. Whatever drink you order at the leafy green café, it will be served on a tiny silver platter with a small cup of whipped cream on liqueur, a water and the small gold G’towners come for. Hugo is always busy and pleasantly packed. In the back is the picture of an old man sipping his coffee with a smirk. On the other side the wall is covered with a black and white illustration of running dears in a spacious valley. The signage to the bathroom friendly reminds you to ‘watch your step’. With my head in a coffee cloud I tripped there several times anyhow - or maybe it was the liqueur. A son of a bitch after all, that Dutch little sweetness.
Joe for now,
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