We Brabanders have known for a long time that our sausage roll is truly a pleasure for your taste buds. But our glory has now also been discovered in Amsterdam. Entrepreneur Marcel Ginus (57) from Tilburg went to the capital this summer to start the first real sausage roll shop. And now, a few months later, it’s full steam ahead.
Marcel Ginus’ daughter has lived in Amsterdam for eight years and he regularly visited the capital. But there he made the sober discovery that sausage rolls were scarce in Amsterdam. He found them in the supermarket, somewhere at the bottom of the shelf. And that just happens to be the stickiest of its kind.
“We could never find a decent sausage roll in Amsterdam. While laughing, we thought during a holiday that it would be a good idea to start a sausage roll shop in Amsterdam.”
That joke quickly turned into a serious plan. Marcel put his idea on paper and looked for a baker. But in Amsterdam that was not easy. “The baker in Amsterdam did everything by machine, I couldn’t afford that in Brabant. I wanted hand-rolled sausage rolls, so I came to baker Houben in Eindhoven.”
“After the people from Brabant, the people from Amsterdam have now also converted.”
The store is a collaboration with the Brabant sausage bread baker Bart Houben. “His fresh sausage rolls are delivered here a few times a week.” And in Amsterdam, those Brabant sausage rolls are popular.
“We opened on October 1. It quickly became full with people from Brabant who live in Amsterdam. They wanted a traditional sausage roll. But now the people of Amsterdam have also moved on.”
It doesn’t stop at the traditional sausage in a sandwich. Together with baker Houben, Marcel also came up with other variants. Such as a sausage roll with truffle and parmesan, a vegan variant and a sports edition: with chicken and whole wheat dough for extra proteins.
“Most people come for the traditional sausage roll.”
As far as we are concerned, the Brabant sausage roll does not need all those strange frills. And they seem to think so in Amsterdam too. “I didn’t expect it, but most people still come for the traditional sausage roll.”