Exactly how old Bennie van de Padangbar from Groningen has become is still shrouded in mystery. He died last week when he was visiting the Netherlands from Morocco.
Eetcafé De Padang is hidden in the Padangstraat, a small street that runs parallel to the Korreweg in Groningen. One of the houses houses De Padang, a neighborhood bar annex Moroccan eatery.
Bennie held sway there for years. Bennie is Ali Ben Mohammed Ait Hamou who grew up in the mountains of Morocco. He left his country at a fairly young age to go to Europe as a guest worker. His first home was somewhere in France where he worked in the mines, but even then he cared more about life than money. The further he descended into the mines, the more he would earn. Didn’t see him. “Health is the most important thing,” he always told his children.
‘My father invented hospitality’
Via Liège and Hoensbroek he ended up in Amsterdam where he had numerous jobs. When he was free on Sundays, he wrote letters to their homes on behalf of other Moroccans. He was one of the few who could read and write well.
He had the world of friends and acquaintances who took him to Groningen one day in the 1970s. He was immediately attached to the city, moved there and reportedly was one of the first guest workers. He went to work in the hospitality industry, learned to cook in De Vlaamsche Reus and started a Moroccan eatery in the back area. Three years later he opened restaurant Marhaba at the Zuiderdiep, which means welcome. In 1986 he breathed new life into eatery De Padang in a few more businesses – including Berber, Groningen’s first night shop.
“My father invented hospitality,” says his daughter Naïma, who grew up in De Padang together with her twin sister Saïdia. At noon, Bennie prepared ‘gravy with egg’ for them: a mixture of eggs, tomatoes, onions, peppers and spices, into which his daughters dipped Moroccan bread. “My father was a unique man, precisely because of his hospitality and humour. He celebrated life and loved people. He asked them all sorts of things and remembered their answers, so pale when he saw them again after a while. And he could be very direct, but because of his charm he always got away with it.”
Stove next to the bar
In the beginning, the Padang was a neighborhood café where visitors could stand alone. Bennie saw with dismay that his business had hardly any business for hours around dinner time. He bought a stove and a butane gas bottle and placed it next to the bar and started preparing Moroccan meals. There were no longer quiet hours and he built a small kitchen at the rear of De Padang. In the 1990s, the place was packed from the end of the afternoon until the night hours.
Around the turn of the century, a cousin of Bennie took over De Padang. It’s still the same place Bennie left behind, only the emphasis is slightly more on the restaurant than on the café. Bennie had meanwhile divorced his Dutch wife and remarried a Moroccan. Together they had four children.
A farewell like the four celebrations in honor of his 50th birthday
About eight years ago he decided to live in Morocco, because he found the temperature more pleasant than in the Netherlands. There he was the Dutchman, here he was the Moroccan. A few weeks ago he came to visit the Netherlands, turned out to be unfit and died here.
Bennie was buried in Morocco on Friday. It is expected that there will be a farewell commemoration in De Padang at the end of April. His daughter will then speak and in her speech she reveals her father’s age. She promises that above all it will be a party like they have celebrated Bennie’s 50th birthday four times in De Padang: with a mixed audience, Moroccan music and until the small hours.