Envy

Envy... was envisioned and developed during the many trips that owner Bert van der Leden made to Rome in connection with the supperclub there.

Italy has countless small delicatessens. There, a village butcher not only sells meat, he also lets his customers sample many of his special products, while at the same time giving advice on which wine is extraordinarily well suited for just the right combination of tastes. It is a new way of experiencing products that makes the customer curious for more, in a small shop where all the products from the countryside are visible right inside the windows and immediately available for tasting. Indeed, they are fresher than fresh. Besides the fact that all the villagers shop there, the attorney from the nearby town also makes a point of driving there in the weekend to do his shopping. At the back of the butcher’s shop there’s a wooden table that serves as a meeting place for the regulars. The guests can sample the products while having a nice conversation over a glass of wine.

Envy creates the same feeling, despite the fact that it doesn’t function as a shop. It is a meeting place with just the right atmosphere, where fresh products and good wines are most important. That is also the reason why Concrete Architectural Associates, the firm that designed the restaurant, chose to combine sleek minimalism with living-room-style comfort. Immediately upon entering, guests can’t help but notice the spacious open kitchen and get a direct sense of the world of the preparation of products. One of the walls consists of 26 refrigerators positioned at eye-level and finished in oak with chrome handles. The refrigerators are intended as showcases for wines, but also for cheeses, sausages, oysters, jams, chutneys, etc. All this serves to arouse an immediate interest in the products, and just looking at them makes your mouth water.

Guests at Envy can either sit down to a full dinner or simply enjoy a nice glass of wine with a bite to eat at the end of the day after work. Changes in the seasons and what they have to offer mean that the menu will change often as well. This menu – a traditional notepad on which the products that have arrived fresh in the morning are written down by hand – does not consist of traditional first courses, main courses and desserts, but rather of dishes the size of a side-dish. That way, guests can decide for themselves, as they go, how many dishes they want. The interior, too, takes these different types of guests into account. All along the wall on the left there are tables and chairs where as many as 54 guests can dine. These tables can be reserved in advance. Starting from the kitchen and continuing straight through the middle to the back are three long elevated tables with barstools, which can seat about 44 guests. These places cannot be reserved but are meant for guests who simply drop by at the end of the afternoon or anytime throughout the evening.

The staff at Envy contribute to a large extent to the atmosphere of a ‘culinary playground’. They know enough about the food and wines to be able to share their enthusiasm with the guests and to give them good advice. What is more, they can even tell interesting stories with background information about the products being served. All this takes place in an easy, relaxed atmosphere. Even more than in other restaurants, the staff at Envy need to take the guests along in an exuberant adventure that challenges them to sample, combine and experience.

The green dot, the logo that Laboratorivm-Mountain designed for Envy, stands for the Envy hallmark, awarded as it were in the sampling of an enviable product. In its assortment of pastries, for example, Envy will be presenting a unique chocolate one. But also just think of other products that have already proved themselves, such as the Van Dobbe croquette and the apple pie from Holtkamp. We envy the perfection of such products, and that is why we will be offering products like these at Envy.

This is all to say that the word ‘restaurant’ is not enough to describe Envy. ‘Delicatessen bar’ is perhaps more appropriate.

Envy is centrally located in Amsterdam at Prinsengracht 381, among the ‘9 little streets’ and near the Westertoren.

Concrete Architectural Associates