February 23rd, 2024

In 2016 Amsterdam was met with the birth of a new French bistrot, Café Caron, French cuisine seen through the eyes of two brothers, Tom and David and their French father and chef, Alain Caron. The small, home-like restaurant quickly became a refuge for many locals, foreigners, connoisseurs, critics, and yes, other chefs: the hallmark of a good restaurant.

Now, 7 years later, Amsterdam counts three more restaurants from the Caron empire. They’ve found and developed their personality, and their essence, and managed to translate this into warm ambiances where their guests love to strike down for a guaranteed divine time.

We sat down with founder David Caron and partner Juul Louw. Young, driven and at the helm of this eponymous culinary enterprise that has only just begun to show us what their vision has in store.

Let’s start off with something close to your heart: you’re hosting a dinner for 10 for your very best friends, what’s on the table?

Juul
Well, I think within our dynamic it is pretty clear that David is in charge of food and cooking.

David
I think the first question is what kind of venue are we in, who exactly will be there, what’s scheduled afterwards? Etcetera. Then we tailor it to that, determining the ingredients and the wine. From there, we look at what we are going to do with the food in terms of preparation and also how much time we want to spend on it.

Juul
When I look back and think about all the times we’ve sat at the table with a group of friends or with someone you know well, the common thread is that whatever arrives at the table can be shared, instead of having a lot of separate courses and everyone getting their own plate, garnished and all.

David
Except when Alain is there. Then it becomes a whole lot of courses. Lots of vegetables, and almost always chicken. And oysters. In general, it has to have two things. One is when we’re sitting around the table with friends, you want to prepare it so that you do actually have several courses, but you don’t want to be in the kitchen. So you cook all those courses, plate them on nice platters and you put them on the table all at once. That way there will be a good amount of preparation, but the moment everyone is in, everyone can just sit down at the table and we can start, without interruption. That creates a perfect ambiance.

And what kind of wine are you serving?

David
Probably Loire, Burgundy, Champagne. And probably not much else.

You guys have managed to strike a chord with a large audience, both national and international, ranging from chefs to ordinary people who love food. What is it that draws them to you?

Juul
I think if you look at how we started with Café, the idea of a neighbourhood bistro, where you basically come and eat at the Caron family home, that’s been the essential approach from the start. Thereby, the recipes, it’s not just mashed potatoes and a piece of meat, or just very comforting food, like a bistrot is generally. It’s also prepared at a really high level.

With this in mind: as if you were sitting at Alain’s table at home, having a nice meal, in combination with the décor, the warm atmosphere, often makes people perceive it as very accessible, as if you’re just going to have a bite. So you’ve probably eaten a poussin before, but then you get a piece of Alain’s long-standing career, his experience and you’re put to a halt with each bite, reminded of the fact that what you’re eating exceeds all expectations and think ‘how nice, I never had a poussin like that before, I have never eaten it that delicious’. Thereby our approach has always been that we’d rather have guests come twice per month than twice per year.

It seems like you guys found a gap in the offering of restaurants in Amsterdam. A way of doing that wasn’t being provided. And you convey it and embrace it as something almost obvious, whilst it is not that obvious.

David
It came from a need to create a place where what Juul just described was possible. A contrast between accessibility, where you can walk in but just as easily book six months in advance to celebrate your birthday with friends and drink special wines. It’s the idea of what we always had had at home, the very lowest-threshold place you can think of, your parents’ table, where we’d eat at a level no less than what Amsterdam’s best restaurants were serving. We tried to translate that combination of the two into a restaurant. I think the reason we have such a wide audience is that it’s suitable for a lot of occasions, from ‘I’m in the mood to go out for dinner tonight, let’s go to Caron’, to ‘In two months I’ll be married to my wife for 20 years and we are going to make it a special night’. Set in a low-key and friendly atmosphere. And if you’d want to go a little crazy with it, order a rare bottle of wine, you can.

You feel the soul you all exude in your restaurants. How have you managed to translate this into the ambiance guests feel in the restaurants?

David
We started off with just family and friends. That really expanded into people from outside joining our team. We’re constantly working to maintain that same atmosphere and culture as the one we started with. And when you’re part of the team, you are part of the family. We’ve had times when people didn’t fit into the team. No one was to blame for that. It was for the simple reason that not everyone fits into this strong sense of community.

Throughout the year we take the team on trips, guide them, and take them by the hand as people who really belong to us and who we want to work with for a longer period of time. And they do. Those who do fit in tend to stay for a really long time. And ultimately, people who work with us embrace it as if it’s a piece of them. Which it is.

Juul
There are six of us partners, of which David’s parents, Alain and Roeltje are two. Then there’s Tom and Martijn, and then there’s us, the now not-so-young, but still the two youngest of that group. So there is a lot of versatility. That makes our input also very versatile. Roeltje is on the floor a lot at Cantine and Café, amongst our youngest colleagues. This both bridges and also connects enormously. And then there’s Alain who mentors all the chefs across generations. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s us who are at all the locations and in terms of age are a bridge between these generations.

Inherently there are different interests within these generations. I think that causes a lot of people to find common ground with us. At least you are approached and involved in different ways, of which one will resonate.

You are both avid athletes. In addition to your demanding careers. David, you’re a boxer and compete in championships. Juul, you do triathlons and marathons. The image of founders and chefs taking on an intense sports regime is one we are becoming increasingly familiar with. But 20, 30 years ago, it was not so common. What has changed in that time and how does, sport relate to your career?

Juul
I see a clear difference between the time before covid and after. Before the first lockdown, we could operate for quite a long time on what felt right. And then suddenly you were forced to organize things with precision, adjust to the uncertainty, and build resilience. We couldn’t just open our doors and welcome someone for a glass of wine. We had to keep a finger on the pulse in a new and different way.

I remember David and I talking to each other about it. We said ‘Let’s seize this moment, let’s quit drinking and start exercising, a lot’. So we picked up running. And since, at times when I need to buckle down, those are the periods I now really lean on sports because the fitness trickles down.

David
For me, it’s a bit double. That has to do with the fact that on the one hand, it’s the perfect tool, doing that boxing competition alongside this, that you actually have to let go of all else that you’ve got going on. At the same time, I do know that it would be much better for me if I did a slightly less intensive sport to support my work. With boxing, you’re fighting, that’s where your head goes and then it requires a lot of your physical strength.
With running, which we did back then, I found the routine of not drinking and running, is the perfect support for being fresh, clearing your head and then being able to work effectively.

I did always have Alain as a role model. Alain never drank a lot and never lived very unhealthy. In fact, he is quite healthy now at 65. He still swims in het Nieuwe Meer three times a week, even in winter. He does his yoga things, travels all over the world, works every day, is still in the kitchen, and is still working on his books. So I think we have the ideal example of how to handle your health if you also want to work really hard.
There are plenty of examples of guys who are in the kitchen, who because of the workload, seek their rest in nights out. That’s always a downward spiral.
Whenever we succeed in convincing someone not to drink for a period of time or to join us on a run or other sports, we see that it becomes an upward spiral very quickly.

I don’t know to what extent it’s a thing of the past versus the present, also because I wasn’t here yet. But for as long as I’ve been around, I do recognize that it’s become more of a standard for people in hospitality to do sports intensively.

How would you compare the Amsterdam culinary landscape of 15 years ago with that of today?

David
Let me think, I was 13 back then. In my memory, there were two restaurants that mattered to my family in Amsterdam. That was Toscanini and Café Restaurant Amsterdam. And there was Bordewijk. That was one of the only ones in the Netherlands who really cooked French on a high level. He used to always go and pick up his products from France as what he used wasn’t even available here. You could not get things like fresh basil here. Though that might have been a little longer ago. But if you went out to eat, which people didn’t do very often, that’s where you could eat things which you normally only ate when on holiday.

The amount of different products we can get now, is a world of difference compared to back then. And I think for guests, the endless variety of wine bars, good-level restaurants, good-level bistros, and Michelin-star restaurants has really increased tremendously and the interest in them has also grown exponentially.

Juul
It is also a fairly recent development that it is so normal to go and eat out and not necessarily having to cook at home every night. We can be as full on Mondays as we are on Fridays.

Also, there was quite a trend with a kind of single-issue restaurant: ‘This is my concept and this is what I do’. That was popular until a few years ago. What’s been on a steady rise in recent years is the move towards being more artisanal and more complete in a restaurant. So really just eating more courses, from A to Z instead of just a burger or chicken; a single item that was meant to define them.
What has inspired you lately?

Juul
We like to go to France a lot. The hospitality industry in Paris always manages to inspire us. What happens there, what you see there, how people relate to all that is happening there, how it’s being received. Some places require reservations weeks or months ahead, there’s entertainment, dress codes, and the works. Others don’t take reservations at all. You just have to hope you get a chance. So yeah, many bold things happening there from which we take inspiration. And looking at those makes us realize how much more we can expand in Amsterdam.

David
I had certainly thought of that too. Another thing that came to mind immediately was a trip with the team we made last year to Domaine Des Baumard, which was the most inspiring trip for me to date. That’s where it everything seemed to have come together.

This time we were invited and we met them at their winery. As we had been there twice before we already knew them. I would even call them friends by now. At a very small scale they produce Savennières at a high level of quality. It’s a wine we really enjoy working with. It remains a bit of a complicated wine because people don’t know it and it does get pricey. So it takes a little extra effort to get it across.

We stayed with Florent, the owner, at his family home with our team. He took us around his entire farm for two days. His own son who’s of our age, was also with us. The deal was that he would take care of everything regarding the wine, and educate our team about his way of producing, for which he really took his time. And, we were in charge of all else, mainly food. He had given us the key to the house and every day he would come to do his lectures and walks and we would set up the table for lunch and dinner and we all ate and drank together. We improvised a beautiful long table outside in the sun, took out the tablecloth, the girls went to gather flowers from the garden, and we put candles in bottles. For dinner, we used local produce, and the guys from our team cooked. Everything happened as one big family. And before we knew it we had arranged a beautiful, idyllic setting. Even Florent himself was amazed.

He went into his cellar all the time and showed up with beautiful old vintages which he shared with us, further extending on what went into its creation. It was this beautiful get-together of friendship, shared passion, and selflessness that created this unforgettable atmosphere.

Another instance that inspired me was one of the last times I was in Paris, can’t recall which one. I had made a reservation at Servan. We had eaten there once. I loved it so much I wanted to show Easy (girlfriend). It had become famous five years ago because of Action Bronson’s visit. I thought that was really cool at the time, but then I was also like, well, I’m not going to go there anymore as it will probably be filled with tourists only now.
But when we arrived it wasn’t necessarily that way at all. And then a few days later Dua Lipa posted about it saying that is one of her favourite restaurants in Paris. Again I thought, ‘f*ck, here we go again’. But again, there were just French people and brains on the menu, nothing changed. How authentic it remains, despite all the attention it has gotten, I found that very cool. Despite even having say brains on the menu.

I hope to establish that with Café Caron as well. That it’s too authentic and solid to change or have the type of guests change, despite outside influence.

So, what makes a good restaurant?

Juul
That the people working there embody the essence and are able to convey it. An infectious feeling that someone is passionate, that’s what makes it for me.

David
For me, it comes down to true authenticity.

What’s on the bucket list for Caron?

David
A castle in France.

Juul
Well, we are also promoting the upcoming opening of the new Petit. As we are currently down to three restaurants as Petit is moving into its new and renovated location.

Besides that I want to say that we keep running, keep developing, keep moving forward. If we do that a bucket list thing for us might be to look at what could we do across the border in France. Not to go and open a restaurant in Paris, that would be carrying coals to Newcastle. But how can Caron add meaning and deliver an experience worthwhile in France for its Dutch guests? I think our ideas as a group drift towards that.