There is France BoulangeriItaly has pizzerias and America has them dinner. Filter coffee, pancakes and fried eggs: America at its best. But just as Toscanini doesn’t bake pizzas and Lil’ doesn’t sell croissants, Kevin Kearney, chef-owner of Stax on De Klerkstraat, doesn’t just do filter coffee. “You can get a fried egg with everything.”
But that’s it. “In my opinion, dinner is a very broad concept. For example, in America you have restaurants where you cook Mexican, Jewish or Greek. That flexibility gives us the opportunity to show what American food can be.
So comfort food on the menu – steamed oysters (€12) or vinegar-chicken (€24) – Kearney grew up in North Carolina. “But we don’t limit ourselves to Southern cuisine.”
For example, grilled turbot (everyday fare) or pork chops — seasoned only with salt, pepper and bay leaf — testify to the influence Basque cuisine has had on Kearney. “That’s what an American restaurant has always been: a reflection of the different experiences and cultures of the chef and crew.”
Running an American restaurant in Amsterdam is a lot of fun, says Kearney. “Like the Amsterdam Brown Pub, the American restaurant is a gathering place.”
Also, all the products in the Atlantic area are very good, he says: “The wheat, the milk, but also the turbot from the North Sea or the sole or the chickens we get from France are of high quality. We can cook better American food here than in America.
Steak’s dinner
De Klerkstraat 32, West
design
The wood panels covering the walls and bark had to be cut by lightning from an American oak from the Netherlands.
here and there
Kearny sees America’s multiculturalism mirrored in the West. “De Klerkstraat is a small part of New York.”
Special
Several cocktails, such as the Paloma (€12.50), come on tap. “It’s efficient, very consistent and people love it,” says Kearney.
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