Restaurant Jimm’s in Gieten goes on sale after 21 years. Owners Martin and Joke Hoekstra are looking for more peace in their lives and are putting their business up for sale. As a result, the village may lose another well-known catering company after Hotel Braams in the long run.
Two decades ago, Joke and Martin started their own catering business on Stationsstraat, then still in the heart of the village. The shopping area has since moved up a few hundred yards, but Jimm’s has been in the same spot since the beginning.
In those early days Jimm’s was still called Restaurant en Zalencetrum Gieten. “The name made you know exactly what we were, but over time we came to be known as ‘the conference center’. We preferred not to, so we changed it to Jimm’s: the initial of us and our two children.” , says Joke.
Jimm’s is now a well-known name in Gieten and surrounding villages and shortly after Martin and Joke put their company up for sale, the first stories were already circulating. Martin: “Jimm’s would no longer run well, corona would have had an influence on that. But our restaurant is often completely full in the evenings. It runs like clockwork.”
The sale comes at a somewhat unexpected time. The old podium hall, where various associations from the village practiced for years, has also recently been completely converted into an extra dining room. “Actually, the company is now exactly what we’ve dreamed of for all those twenty years,” says Joke. “But we would still like to do something different. It is time for something new.”
Joke and Martin are far from tired of working in the hospitality industry. In fact, if the company is not sold in the next five years, that is no problem. Martin: “But we don’t want it to become a problem for us and we can’t get rid of it towards our pension. Although the work is really fun now and we don’t necessarily have to leave immediately.”
The time that Jimm’s is up for sale, the couple will use to think about the future. They don’t know exactly what lies ahead for them. Joke: “At least a little more rest, because at the moment our whole life revolves around the company. But hopefully at least a nice house with a garden. And that we can take a day off.”
It seems certain that Martin and Joke will eventually stop with Jimm’s, but they don’t think the restaurant will disappear completely. Martin: “There is a catering destination on this property and it is also in a fantastic location and it is going very well. So no, I don’t expect Gieten to lose another catering company after we leave.”