Jack Rietra is tapping trapistjes for his customers for the last time this Sunday. After 68 years of catering with a busy terrace at De Dommel, he quits his family business. Rietra, who is 68 years old, thinks it has been nice after fifty years of work. Moreover, he is completely fed up with all the rules for running a catering business. He becomes a miller again, but purely as a hobby.
Immediately after the opening, at half past ten, the first guests report to have a cup of coffee in the sun by the water. A few even dare to take a trapiste on Sunday morning. Hikers and cyclists who have been to the adjacent nature reserve De Malpie traditionally like to visit the terrace at the Venbergse Watermolen.
The fact that a terrace and catering were added to the mill was born out of necessity. After the Second World War, the mill was no longer able to earn dry bread. Jack’s father therefore decided to start catering. Initially very modest. But in 68 years it has grown into one of the most popular terraces in Valkenwaard and the surrounding area.
“If the catering area were to remain open, we would never have any peace.”
The big question is, why not continue with a new operator? Rietra is very clear about that. He was born and raised at the watermill and does not want to leave: “We will continue to live here. If the catering area were to remain open, we would never have any peace. The catering destination will remain on the building. Should Rietra ever move, a new manager can still take over. But that could take years.
There is plenty of interest in taking over the terrace. After a small message in the newspaper, seventeen interested parties registered one day, says Rietra. But from Monday the terrace will be a thing of the past for the time being: “All tables and chairs will be removed today,” says Rietra.
It will be a farewell for the miller and catering man and his wife with a smile and a tear. The often regular visitors also regret the end of the well-known terrace: “We have been coming here for 65 years. When we were still young and handsome, we often went here, also because they had three beautiful daughters”, says a customer who a few friends on their racing bike come to drink a trapiste.
“The liquor supply dwindled quickly.”
The fact that the terrace is popular has been shown since the closure became known. “It has been extremely busy in recent weeks, the drink stock has dwindled quickly, although I still have enough Trappist beer in stock,” says Rietra. The miller and catering man had a working week of one hundred hours. Add to that that he also gets some pain in his legs. Reason enough to finally retire well deserved.
The owner was also quirky. For example, a sign states that dogs are not allowed on the terrace. A lot of people don’t like that. But after a child was attacked by a dog on the terrace in the 1970s, that ban applies. Customers also have to go get their own drinks. Jack expects that if a new manager ever comes along, that will all change: “The terrace will then become larger and, above all, more commercial.”
But that is not yet the case. Jack proudly shows the Venbergse Watermolen, one of the oldest windmills in the Netherlands, built between 850 and 900 AD, so over a thousand years old. He starts working as a hobby miller. But grinding grain for customers and adding a shop, Jack doesn’t do that anymore at his age.