Hapje Hour: 13 Wine Bars in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

My favourite moment of the day is somewhere around 6.30 pm, when work is finished, it’s not yet time for dinner, and the kitchen is filled with the familiar glug-glug-glug sound of a just-opened bottle of wine being poured. If I’m at home, it’ll perhaps be accompanied by some cheese and biscuits or slices of chorizo; if I’m out, it might be beer and bitterballen, or G&T and olives. Either way, this first-drink-of-the-day meets early-evening snacks moment has a name in our house: Hapje Hour – which, incidentally, will be the name of my bar if the Honey Badger and I ever open one.

Either way, this first-drink-of-the-day meets early-evening snacks moment has a name in our house: Hapje Hour

The Italians call this aperitivo, and they do it spectacularly well. I’m not sure what the Spanish call it, but the same principle applies with tapas. The Dutch have their borrelhapjes, of course, but there’s room to branch out from the deep-fried snacks and blocks of cheese – as moreish with mustard as they may be. And Amsterdam – with its work-life balance that means most people leave work at a sensible time – is finally starting to get on board with this. More and more restaurants, bars and cafés are starting to offer shareable bites with drinks, and the quality and inventiveness of the food is going up in parallel. Here are just a few of my favourite wine bars in Amsterdam, that don’t disappoint on the food front… ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).