Coffee Bru

Rum Baba on the grinder, Monkey Chief in the pot

Coffee Bru pours Rum Baba, the Amsterdam roastery and bakery it shares a lineage with, and it runs the coffee both ways: espresso through a La Marzocco Linea, and filter or pour over for anyone who wants it black. That gives the counter two clear routes and one set of beans behind both. Cappuccino and flat white are the milk end, filter and pour over the other, and neither is treated as the lesser option. Tea is unusually specific for a coffee bar, too. The loose-leaf comes from Monkey Chief, so a pot here is a considered choice rather than a bag pulled out for whoever is not drinking coffee. It is worth ordering on its own terms rather than as the alternative to coffee.

A neighbourhood room in Amsterdam Oost

The Beukenplein room opened with a tropical look and has since been pared back to a concrete counter, which gives it the feel of a proper city coffee bar without losing the neighbourhood function it was built for. Plants indoors, daylight through a skylight, music at a level that still lets people talk, and seating both inside and out on the square. It sits close to Oosterpark in a part of Amsterdam Oost that has filled out around it, and it gets used accordingly: coffee, a newspaper, a long conversation, something small to eat. A second Coffee Bru operates on Van Woustraat, so the format has travelled once already.

Order the flat white with toasted banana bread

The pairing to order is a flat white and toasted banana bread, which is the combination the counter is set up for and the one most regulars settle on. A cappuccino with a buttery scone does the same job in a different register. If the coffee is the point rather than the accompaniment, take the filter or a pour over first and eat afterwards, so nothing gets in the way of the cup. Beyond those, the bake list runs to cakes, cookies and home-made sweet things, drawing on the Rum Baba side of the family, which has a reputation in the city for exactly that. Finish with a pot of Monkey Chief tea if you are staying, since it is the one thing on this counter that no other Amsterdam coffee bar will pour.