First to Rembrandt, then a stroopwafel: the nostalgic cookie shop like new Dutch cultural goods

From far away it seems that something is very important. A row of the Rokin is killing, tourists are, patiently waiting, backpack, smartphone in the attack, as if they know that during their Holland trip they will certainly get their typical piece of national culture here. At least it works at the Rembrandt Museum, the Delftblauw factory, the Klompenwinkel-so also with this ‘Koekboerij van Stapele’ on the Rokin?

For a moment, when you are finally inside, it seems very old Dutch. On the windows there is a portrait logo in late eighteenth-century silhouette style, tools seem to have the patina of at least a century, the wood-with-gold decoration also appears to be impressive, and then there are also bakers that (behind glass) roll the dough. A historic -looking decor, as if it has always been there. Only: that is not true – the cookie shop on the Rokin has only been around since 2024, and from Stapele itself only since 2013. On closer inspection, the ‘historical decor’ appears to be a wonderful gathering of contemporary finds – including the cookie itself – in a warm bath of historical suggestion.

For the success of the formula, that does not matter, because the ‘Koekboekerij’ on the Rokin is by no means the only cookie shop in this neighborhood with such a design. A little further is Van Wonderen, who sells syrupwafels, and has golden letters ‘since 1907’ on the facade; Very historically looking hot air balloons are very historically looking in the shop window. But the Van Wonderen family, according to the description on the website, was in that gilded year 1907 just a farm in Bergen. Only in 2017 did the grandson of a later Van Wonderen-Bakker open his syrupwafelwinkelin de Kalverstraat.

Social media

The ‘real’ Amsterdammer (the one who has been living there for a while) now seems to be able to leave only scornful opinions between the thousands of Google Reviews about such cookie shops in his city center, especially about the requested prices. But a visit is, even without a cookie, clarifying: the design tells something about the current time, precisely by pretending to be historic.

Zoom in

A third cookie shop – only the range within walking distance of the NRC-Editors to be called -is perhaps the least imaginative of the list, but it is significant. The Hans Egstorf bakery has been a baker on this place since 1898, and also has real historical remains of it. But the perhaps once used historic cash register now has a sign ‘no cash’ before, the authentic remnant is now just a backdrop for the experience of a ‘Authentic Dutch‘Stroopwafel: the bakery still has bread, but has been focusing’ since three years’ mainly on stroopwafels, an employee says: of course here also with a waffle -baking working student in front of the window.

Of course, this game with historical decors in tourist locations is not. The clog shop, the mills, the pancake houses: the suggestion of authenticity for the photo already started at the end of the nineteenth century, and became more and more massive in the course of the twentieth century. But with the photographic-obsessive view of the social media user, the emphasis on this decor has become stronger in recent years.

The bite -sized kick nostalgia is one of the widest applicable success formulas of our time: for designers, politicians and for the locals

This is the apparent paradox of the nostalgic cookie shops: their ‘authentic’ character is successful because the ultramodern formulas of the social media are applied to it. In particular, Stroopwafels have worked up on Tiktok and Instagram as equivalent from Rembrandt and clogs to Dutch culture goods – but in a fully globalized jacket. At the Stroop company in the Kalverstraat – which of course has been ‘baking on the stroopwafels since 1921’, in the sweet colors of Instagram in several Reels The baking process is highlighted, in which concepts such as ‘authentic’ and ‘tradition’ pop up every third sentence, while at the same time Marshmallows or Smarties are sprinkled on the waffles.

Illusion

Writer Marcel Proust used a Madeleine cookie to call a lost time, but here the cookies are part of a construction, an illusion of the past. The visitor does not even have to taste that the cookie would be authentic, but he must be able to believe it. The suggestion of authenticity is therefore magnified in these stores, historical details are highlighted or added – where it is no longer about whether they are ‘really old’, or simply completely fantasized together.

And why, “Only for the tourists”? The metropolis that leaves scornful reviews here is also in line in Tuscany or Thailand itself for the shop with ‘local products’ that looked so authentic online – and buys Delftblauwe Stroopwafel cans at the Hema at home. For those who want it all hangs together: the bite -sized kibble nostalgia is one of the widest applicable success formulas of our time. He is there for designers, politicians and for the locals Looking for his own cultural goods with a wink.

The historically -looking cookie shop is not really, but a lot at the same time: a by -product of globalization, a consequence of the influence of social media and somewhere of a long -yeasting feeling of nostalgia – but then to a time that never existed.

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