Tracking down a good brunch in Amsterdam is becoming our “thing”. Which is becoming decidedly less difficult since the city decided to embrace brunch culture and serve more than just chocolate sprinkles on toast for breakfast (it’s a Dutch thing, look it up).
Being eagled-eyed as we are, we had spotted a new cafe being decorated in our neighbourhood that sported the tagline “eat well, do good”. We didn’t really have a clue what that meant, but we’re more than happy to eat well at any time and we assumed that perhaps it would be a health food store-cum-cafe that served only local produce.
What we got, in fact, was even better than that.
Dignita is a chain of cafes (I think it originally started in San Francisco), that supports the work of a not-for-profit company called Not For Sale. NFS tries to protect communities around the world from slavery and human trafficking – Dignita then employs some of the people that NFS have helped and trained, as well as donating a percentage of their profits every year.
We knew none of this when we headed in to have brunch on Scott’s birthday last week – all we knew what that the menu sounded fantastic and the cakes positioned close to the door looked even better. The fact that part of the money we spent goes back to good causes was just an added bonus.
I loved my poached eggs on toast with a side of smashed avocado, and Scott’s salmon Eggs Benedict on top of a crispy hash cake was divine. But the star of the show was most definitely the English-style crumpets topped with Dutch cheese, which ended up with a texture and butteriness of an English muffin and crumpet combined. Heaven, especially for someone who misses crumpets on a weekly basis.
We also managed to sip down an iced coffee, a Bloody Mary and a salted caramel and white chocolate slice between us, all the while excitedly trying to decide when we’d be coming back in for brunch again. It won’t be long, I can tell you that much.
- Koninginneweg 218
- Open Mon – Sun 9am – 5pm
- Dignita Amsterdam website
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