All the fun of the circus

One of the most memorable places we visited on our trip to Amsterdam was undoubtedly our visit to the Casablanca, a café-cum-bar-cum-restaurant. It really is one of its kind.

According to the leaflet we found inside it is the only such place in Europe devoted to the circus. Whenever circus performers are in the area they will meet up here.

Upstairs was a theatre. Needless to say, we never ventured there. Downstairs, in the part we were, before the steps, was a cosy bar. The welcome was warm, as the lady behind the bar came & sat down at our table to take our food order.

The décor of the bar area was covered with all things circus. The ceiling was papered with old circus posters. Every shelf & cranny contained pictures of performers, model vans with names such as Chipperfields & Roberts on them, playing cards & other toys featuring clowns on them etc. It was fabulous & joyous, capturing some of the excitement of the circus.

As we waited for our food to arrive, a man came up, all dressed in a sparkling pink jacket, dressed like a ringmaster. He sat down & started to perform magic tricks. He was really interested when he realised we recognised one of the tricks as one that Michael, a Polish barman/aspiring professional magician who used to work at our village pub, did. I get the impression the circle of magicians & circus people is a small closed one where everyone knows everyone.

As for the food, it was good. The tomato soup was rich & clearly homemade. The Fox then had a simply done whole sole on the bone. I had sea bass in a Mediterranean sauce. I expected it to be baked in a tomato/pepper/ possibly aubergine & courgette sauce. It wasn’t that at all. Instead it was in a fish stock based sauce, with shrimps, mushrooms & mussels in it. Delicious. The chef is a former acrobat – as I say, all things circus related!

It’s certainly a place if ever we were in Amsterdam we would go again.

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PS For some of the frustration of our drive down to  Liverpool read the Fox's latest blog. Thank goodness we took a paper map with us so didn't have to go via Buxton!