Tomorrow Vandaag, a genever bar with a Dutch theme, will open in the East Village in New York City.

Vandaag will serve Dutch snacks and food such as bitterballen and hete bliksem and will carry a large selection of genever cocktails and other drinks.

Dutch-inspired dishes
'Vandaag' is a Dutch word that means 'today'. Manager Brendan Spiro describes this a reference to the seasonality of the ingredients that are used on the menu.

Mr Spiro: "Nothing is fully traditional Dutch, but the food is inspired by Dutch and Danish dishes using a profile of locally sourced ingredients." An example of this is the burger, which is modeled after the Dutch slavink. Other Dutch items on the menu include stroopwafels and Frisian suikerbrood.

Genever
Genever has seen a surge in popularity in recent years. In September 2008 Bols, a Dutch genever producer, launched a new a marketing campaign targeting bartenders across the USA to establish Bols as an innovator in cocktail-making and to promote the genever drink.

Robert Simonson, a wine and spirits journalist, wrote for the New York Times Diner's Journal about genever:

Genevers (also spelled jenever) — from which the English word “gin” derives — are often aged. They are typically headier, more malty and sweeter than London dry style gins. Mixologists have recently embraced genever as a style of gin closer to the ones used by their storied 19th-century predecessors like Jerry Thomas. At Vandaag, the genevers will be served chilled and in the traditional tulip-shaped glasses found in Amsterdam’s genever bars. Filled to the lip, one traditionally bends over the glass for the first sip before taking the drink in hand.

This is the first Dutch bar to open in New York City after the closure of Danku in January this year (see our list with all restaurants, bakeries and stores in the United States).

Vandaag
103 Second Avenue (Sixth Street), East Village
New York, NY

Ettie and Gerben have a son, and his name is Jasper!

He was born yesterday at 10.30 pm, he's 4030 gram and 52 centimeters. Mother and child are doing well.

Gerben and Ettie called us late last night from the hospital, and I heard my nephew's first cries.

We're very happy -- congratulations!

Jasper.

Jasper and his parents.

Jasper with opa & oma Bosman.

I'm back home in Durham after a fun weekend in DC. We did some shopping in the morning and had a late lunch together in Sasha's house.

I left at 3.00 pm, and even though traffic leaving Washington was pretty bad, I arrived in Durham at 7.30 pm.

This picture shows highway I85, as seen from a rest stop in southern Virginia.

We're spending the weekend together in Washington, DC.

The weather is great -- warm and humid but not too hot. Yesterday we went for a long hike from Riverbend Park to Great Falls Park. We walked for 135 minutes. In the evening with had dinner at Cafe Belga, great as always.

Here is a selection of articles and videos about Dutch fans in the USA watching the final World Cup game between Spain and the Netherlands.

• New York Times, about the event by NLBorrels.com in Tonic, "...a bar in Midtown that has become a center for Dutch events. Hundreds of people crammed every square foot of the bar on Sunday, craning their necks to watch the action on the wall-to-wall overhead screens. There were orange hats, orange shirts, orange balloons, and giant soccer balls suspended in nets from the ceiling"
• Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, DC, slideshow
• San Francisco Chronicle: "The traffic-cone orange of Dutch fans dominated the crowd gathered in front of two giant screens across from City Hall, with red Spanish jerseys sprinkled in between."
• KUSI News: World Cup finals at Shakespeare Pub & Grille, San Diego
• Washington Post, about Mackey's Pub: "At the pub in Northwest, more than 250 yelling, foot-stomping, orange-wearing fans crammed in to cheer on their beloved Dutch. They wrapped themselves in flags, blared vuvuzelas and bit their nails. They cheered every movement toward Spain's goal and screamed obscenities at every foul, the volume increasing with each newly poured cup of beer".
• ABC 15.com: "Hundreds of orange clad fans gathered Sunday in Scottsdale to cheer on the Netherlands in the World Cup finale."

Well, that was very disappointing. It was sad to see the Netherlands lose after so many successful games.

On the bright side: we spent part of the weekend together, which was great after two weeks not seeing each other. We watched the game with a large group of Dutch and Spanish supporters in a bar in DC and Mike joined us there (thanks for coming out!). Later I talked with Petra in real live, which was nice.

We walked back past the Embassy of Spain in Georgetown, where we saw a happy crowd of Spanish supporters.

Today I worked remotely, spending most of my day in Starbucks (which now has free WiFi, which is very convenient). I'm back in Durham now.