The ‘world famous’ chip maker Ferry Verstrepen in Breda and the surrounding area passed away quite suddenly last Friday at the age of 86. De Fer, as everyone knew him, was a striking man and his iconic chip shop on the Haagweg was a household name in Breda. “He fooled everyone and was crazy as hell.”
“I’m a bit shocked,” says a customer of De Fer’s chip shop when he hears the news about the heart failure. “I knew him quite well. Just a simple person who you could have a nice chat with. Everyone knew him too. And his fries were not too hard and not too soft. Just tasty,” he says as he locks his bike. .
The chip shop still bears De Fer’s name, but he has not been making fries, croquettes and frikandellen there for a while. His daughter Petra Kleinjan now runs the business. “I worked with him for forty-five years,” she says. “I have been helping since I was a child. We have shared a lot of joy and sorrow here together. That is now gone. I miss him already.”
“My father was very friendly, but sometimes a bit brutal and blunt.”
She actually wanted to keep her father’s death quiet until after the funeral, but the news is now spreading like wildfire. After almost sixty years of baking, the chip shop was ‘world famous’ in Breda and the surrounding area.
“My father was an icon in Breda and had his own way of working,” continues daughter Petra. “He fooled everyone and was crazy as hell. He was very friendly, but sometimes a bit brutal and blunt. When people spoke a bit unclearly, he simply said that they were not speaking through their nostrils, but through their We had to keep our mouths shut. That was all possible in the past, but it is outdated.”
De Fer suffered a huge blow in 2018 after a devastating fire in the chip shop. It was then completely rebuilt, but the event resonated for a long time. “After that fire, but also after the time he was robbed, everything deteriorated a bit,” says florist and neighbor Cees while he is loading his things next to the chip shop. “But he was a household name here. And you still hear people shouting that they are going to De Fer. At times it was a bit of a grumble, but in a funny way. For me he was above all a good neighbor. “
“I’m glad that De Fer is still on the facade.”
“I’ve never seen him grumpy,” says customer Fred. “He was a good guy. And he had nice, crispy fries. When they were closed for a while due to the fire, I went to another chip shop, but it was not tasty. Not even the pigs wanted that. And now at Petra’s it’s still delicious.”
“People are shocked and we receive a lot of expressions of support,” daughter Petra concludes. “He was a hard worker: always busy with the case. He no longer fools anyone, but I am happy that De Fer is still on the facade here. That is a nice feeling.”
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