What is going on with Pontplein, the snack bar near the ferry, at the busy junction on the border of IJmuiden and Velsen-Zuid? Countless residents of IJmuiden pass a closed eatery every day, much to their disappointment. Will that change next summer?
Day trippers, cyclists and people waiting for the ferry. The snack bar on the Pontplein has been a popular stopping place for decades. The tent has been closed for over a year and that raises a lot of questions.
Anyone who tries to find answers via the website of the self-proclaimed ‘poort van IJmuiden’ will not get much wiser. Pontplein would reopen on June 7 after a short break of two weeks: in the year 2022 that is. But that never happened.
A shame, because the popular attraction was closed for so long during the corona period. A new owner, Frank Lokhoff, had breathed new life into the tent from the beginning of last year.
Lokhoff then had big plans for party evenings with live music on the terrace along the water. But before the summer of 2022, he pulled the plug again. Why? He doesn’t want to tell.
Desolate snack wall
And now the empty snack wall of Pontplein has been a desolate sight for all cyclists and pont-goers for more than a year. If it is up to owner Rick Koelemeij, Pontplein will open again in the summer of 2024, with IJmond delicacies such as kibbeling and fish and chips.
According to him, the current closure has a simple reason: “The season has already started and we don’t have enough staff. We can’t just pull people from our two other locations, the restaurants Kop van de Haven and Gerard van Es. And we do want to offer good quality, also at Pontplein.”
There are no vacancies in the large windows of Pontplein and the online vacancy page is hidden on the website, but according to Koelemeij it is indeed the case: “If we can hire enough good people, Pontplein will open again next summer season.”