Today at 5:45 PM • Updated today at 6:58 PM
Jozef Friederichs from Budel-Schoot has a double anniversary: he turned eighty and has been the bar owner of Café de Sport for forty years. Five days a week, Jozef walks from his living room to the pub. “I didn’t actually want to open a pub, I did it for my wife.” The village now cannot do without the café and the manager. “Joseph keeps the village together.”
“This is my favorite spot,” says Jozef Friederichs while standing behind the tap. “This is my second living room. I sleep upstairs and at the back I rest and enjoy.”
Eighty years old, that’s how old the pub owner turned this week. “I have been doing this for half my age and still,” says Jozef proudly. “And I don’t plan to stop. I’m open five days a week, an eighty-year-old has to rest every now and then.” His secret: a little exercise and a few Budelse beers every day.
“Everything comes together here. The associations, fair, carnival and fair.”
Joseph almost did not become an innkeeper. “My first wife, who unfortunately passed away, had cancer. When she was cured, they wanted to start a pub. At first I didn’t want that, I’d rather sit in front of it,” Jozef laughs. But he gives his wife a pub and in 1986 they open their café in Budel-Schoot.
In 1992 his wife died and Jozef continued as usual. “It has become my life, hobby and pleasure. I want to be among people.” The village cannot miss Jozef either. “There used to be nine cafes here, but I am the only one still open,” says the innkeeper. Neighbor Willy regularly sits at the bar drinking a beer. “Jozef keeps the village together, everything comes together here. The associations, fair, carnival and fair. He is just a great guy.”
“It’s just Budel-Schoot’s living room,” says Ben van Schaijk. “The village cannot do without Joseph, let’s hope he lives to be a hundred. He is a very good and pleasant man, he is there for everyone.”
“When I’m no longer here, I’ll have myself laid out here on the billiard table.”
Jozef wants to keep it going for at least another ten years. “Then I’ll complete fifty. I’ll just keep going.” The pub owner is now also trying to enjoy his pub a little more. “Before I had my own pub, I drank more than the people. The first thirty years in my pub I didn’t smoke or drink. In recent years I’ve fallen for it again, but what can I do now.” Every now and then the regulars ensure that a beer is tapped.
Jozef absolutely does not want to think about quitting. “They have to carry me away from here. When I’m no longer here, I’ll lay myself out here on the billiard table, then the tap will open and they can enjoy it afterwards.”
