In a way, Vincent and Helma Gasseling are rare people, because instead of wanting more and more – a second branch, an expensive car, a holiday to the Maldives – for 47 years they wanted exactly what they already had, namely a snack bar. in the center of Doetinchem.
At least, until last week, because then it was their last day and they closed the oldest and last snack bar in the city center of Doetinchem for good. In retrospect you can say that the timing was perfect, says Helma. We live in a time when the government is increasingly taking sides for the vegetarian burger, instead of the hamburger – not ideal times for snack bar owners.
For example, today, Tuesday, a report from the Scientific Institute of the CDA came out that talks about a minimum age for fast food restaurants, because fast food is just as harmful as alcohol and tobacco. Last month you already had the intention of State Secretary Van Ooijen of Public Health, who wants to investigate whether the arrival of new snack bars in, for example, poorer neighborhoods and around schools can be banned. Next year you will also receive the new rules for single-use plastic drinking cups and food packaging.
‘Glad we don’t have to participate in that anymore,’ says Helma.
Because make no mistake: apart from all those rules, the corona crisis has also seriously affected the frying industry. And of course you have the high energy prices because of the Ukraine war, the rise of kebab and sushi shops throughout the Netherlands and all those new restaurants that are haute friture to do; those organic chip shops with meat substitutes and vegan mayonnaise, and that sort of thing.
No wonder that the number of deep-fat fryers has fallen from over eight thousand to about five thousand in about twenty years. In fact, according to the leading website Frituurwereld, an additional eight hundred cafeteria owners are currently seriously doubting the future of their company.
Just look at Doetinchem, where not a single cafeteria can be found in the city center since Vincent and Helma’s farewell party last week. Until recently there were three. The snack bar in the Synagogestraat: gone. The one in Hamburgerstraat: gone. Snackplus Gasseling at Simonsplein: gone. Sic transit gloria Doetinchem.
Because before it becomes a sad story: there has been enough glory for the past 47 years, says Vincent. “Now if I go for a walk outside and meet fifty people, thirty people will say hello.” They never went on holiday, their business was always open, even until 4:30 am on weekends. Far beyond the city they were praised for their schnitzels and meatballs, also by farmers who are into the meat themselves.
And what about regulars like Hansie Hunting, a man who undoubtedly needed more physical than mental food the first time he stepped into the snack bar, but gradually realized that Vincent and Helma had much more to offer than just noodles. He felt so at home in the cafeteria that after a while he came every day.
‘You can now also see that our regular customers have been searching since last week’, says Helma. ‘Then they walk into the Bakker Bart across the street, but mostly young girls work there who don’t always feel like a chat.’
The immediate reason for their decision to discontinue Snackplus was the death of the tenant of the apartment above the snack bar. They thought: of course it is very beautiful, this work, but if we also want to spend some time outside the cafeteria before the afterlife takes care of us, then it should be done now.
And so last week hundreds of former customers came to bring flowers in honor of their last day and the mayor ate one more frikandel, after which their agenda, free to Cees Nooteboom, was as empty as a notebook at the beginning of the book for the first time in fifty years. the new school year.
What are they going to do with that time?
Poe, says Vincent, the man who for 47 years wanted only what he already had. “I think we’re going to take it easy first. Do the garden. Then at 12 o’clock eat bread together, and then we take the bicycle.’
Jarl van der Ploeg will replace Toine Heijmans, who will be working on a new novel in the coming months.