Kantine: around the table together

Kantine’s mission is to make eating affordable and to bring people together. Pulling up a chair for a two-course meal costs just €12. But this community restaurant isn’t just about eating. ‘We also provide a podium for the city’s creative spirits.’

The evening at Beton-T en VechtclubXL slowly comes to life on the terrace. A girl in cycling gear leans her bike against the fence, a boy in a cap is sitting at one of the picnic tables, a book in one hand, a fork in the other. French disco music can be heard from inside and the smell of freshly-baked pancakes wafts from the open kitchen.

‘Hey, nice to see you! Are you eating with us?’ , Giulia calls out, while placing a bowl of haricot beans on the buffet. ‘Join the queue on the left. It’s serve yourself.’ She asks the first person in the queue: ‘Which pancake? Cheese, spinach, or kimchi?’.

The guests fill their plates, take their cutlery, pour themselves a glass of water and take a seat at one of the picnic tables. A group of Spanish friends strike up a conversation with their neighbours, someone orders a beer and people take selfies.

Island

Since April, Kantine has been the communal meeting place at VechtclubXL, a creative hub with studios and workshops, and Beton-T, a venue for events and makers. During the day, it’s occupied by students, makers and freelancers having coffee, breakfast or lunch while they work or have meetings. In the evenings, the laptops disappear and it’s time for dinner.

‘The idea came from the hub itself’, marketeer Job Wolters explains. ‘We didn’t have a place where people could just meet up in their break or have a quick lunch together. ‘But we also wanted to open it up to the rest of the city. Utrecht has so many creative spirits, but they all live on their own little islands.’

The forthcoming success was obvious during Kantine’s opening, says Job. ‘People who’d never met before just sat talking to each other at long tables.’ These tables have since become the beating heart of the place for a diverse public: students, (creative) entrepreneurs, locals, families.

Haricot beans

The menu is hanging on the wall: ‘Breakfast €2.50. Lunch from €7. Two-course dinner €12’. Incredibly cheap at a time when the price of eating out is soaring and a cup of coffee at a pavement café easily costs €4. Hospitality prices in Utrecht have risen by an average of 4% in the last year, and eating out is rapidly becoming a thing of the past for many students and young people. Job: ‘Everything is so expensive. Your rent, festivals, restaurants. People tend to eat at home these days. We think this is a pity. We want to make it affordable so that people can just come here whenever they feel like it.’