History

How it started

It is since 1969 that patisserie Holtkamp is located at the Vijzelgracht in Amsterdam. In that year Cees and Petra Holtkamp took over the company from J.G. van Nie and with that the tradition continued because there used to be a pastry shop at the Vijzelgracht already since 1886.

Cees and Petra started together, Cees in the bakery and Petra in the shop. They had a lot of success and soon it became too busy for the two of them so they hired their first staff members. Patisserie Holtkamp became more and more famous in Amsterdam and slowly also outside the capital. The pastry assortment was growing and in more and more grand cafes and restaurants you could find their products on the menu.

In 2002 the company was taken over by daughter Angela and son-in-law Nico. At that time they were already working in the Holtkamp bakery for eight years. Right after they took over the company, Nico stayed in the bakery and Angela started in the shop. And still there is a lot of development in the company. Famous food critic Johannes van Dam provides us with good advice and we have a lot to thank him for.

From time to time we change minor details to some of our products if we think that we can improve the taste. Of course we will always respect the traditional production process in those changes. There is still a lot of classic pastry we would like to produce and perfect!

The shop

In the time Cees and Petra were running the company, people often asked why they did not expand the shop. In that case the beautiful art-deco interior would be lost in order to offer more space for clients in the shop (the shop is only 18 square meters). Fortunately they never took those advices so that today the beautiful interior is still intact.

The shop, designed by Dutch architect Piet Kramer, was build in 1928. When we took over the company in 2002, we had the plan to renovate the shop and bring it back to its original interior. But, renovating the shop also means closing down for business, so it had to be done in the shortest possible time. We managed to do it in one month, but also with one year of planning in advance.

We could not have done it without the contactor responsible, renovation company Kneppers. Because of the support of architect Wim Quist, who had wonderful ideas for the window display, the bonbon show case and the refrigerated show cases, the shop was brought back in the original state with a modern twist. Also the son of Piet Kramer, industrial architect Friso Kramer advised us during the renovation and reopened our shop.

Finally

We are proud of our company and all our employees who work hard every day for a delicious and traditional product. We are planning to continue for many years and who knows...maybe one day one of our children will.

More information?

Surf to this very nice website, full with historical facts and stories about shops in Amsterdam: www.winkelstories.com.