gROwDam

Ever wanted to dine in a restaurant with a couple of Kat von D’s behind the grill? Well, you can! In Rotterdam, on the Meent, at Burgertrut (Dutch for: ‘Bourgeois-bitch’ [sic]). Don’t let the name fool you, these tough ladies will serve the most exhilarating and healthy burgers that we at gROwDAM have tasted yet. Burgertrut will change everything you think you've known about burgers. Mainly because they have a large range of vegetarian patties, and fresh, pure juices to go along with them.

Burgertrut is part of an art initiative called Roodkapje Rottterdam (Yes three T’s, why? Nobody knows!). Right next to the restaurant you can step into a world of artistic expression, and extrinsic experimentation. Roodkapje Rottterdam is engaged with all facets of art, and provides quickly changing exhibitions, that are both approachable as well as critical.

On top of their soft spot for culture, Burgertrut takes care of the world we live in. Their produce is either organic, local, seasonal, Fair Trade, or animal friendly. Full but not done eating? Doggybag! Another important asset: The toilets are water-smart. 

Quickly back to gastronomy! Whether you order the “Seitanic Kebabs”, (Seitan skewers with fresh mixed salad and a dangerous garlic-coriander-yoghurt dip), or the “What’s up doc?” (A carrot burger on a bed of julienne salad and curry sauce topped with cheese all between a crisp bun) doesn’t matter, you know you are eating original, high quality food, that you don’t even have to feel guilty about. Besides these health crunches, you have your regular (organic) beef burger and your classic cheeseburger (“Texas Cheese Massacre”). The prices are very fair, and definitely student proof (all veggie burgers €5,50). Besides that, their well-earned profit entirely goes to Roodkapje, so you are doing good yourself and the Arts at the same time. All in a low key setting, with a different bouquet of flamboyant flowers on every table, a great open kitchen to behold the fierce grilling, and a very pettable doorkeeper (their brave Jack Russell).

There is only one point of critique for Burgertrut and that is the absence of a terrace. As a compensation, they throw open their front door for some fresh air. Welcome, but with this beautiful weather people are going to want a little UV. So I’m going to use this opportunity to say: Kat, put some of those solid picnic tables on the pavement, and we will come running for your burgers like there is no tomorrow!   

Opening Hours

Tuesdays from 17.00 till 22.00

Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11.30 till 22.00

Sundays from 14.00 till 20.00

Contact

Burgertrut

Situated in the city center of Rotterdam, you can find the “Green heart” of shopping and dining - de Groene Passage. De Groene Passage consists of six stores, a workshop center and a publisher. On a Monday afternoon we went to check out the little green restaurant called Spirit.

Spirit is located in the center of the passage, surrounded by the rest of the venues in the Groene Passage. The restaurant is self-service so there is no need to wait around for a waiter to take your order. At the counter you can pick your own fresh, 100% biological, vegetarian meal. The counter separates the restaurant from the kitchen providing customers a view of how the food is freshly made and served.

Spirit offers a wide variety of fresh, biological juices, smoothies and teas to drink and when it comes to food, it has a lot of healthy stuff! Many different types of salads, leafy greens and fresh soups make up most of the choice on the menu. However, if you feel the need to indulge in something sweet they have some pastries, chocolate and cakes to snack on as well. The price of the food differs, since you really pay for what you eat. This means that you pay for the amount you scoop onto your plate, they do this by weighing your plate at the check-out counter. An average meal will cost you around €10, and cup of tea with a pastry will average at about €5.

However, even though most of the food looked as if it was made fresh, the pastries proved otherwise. The walnut carrot cake was extremely dry and seemed like it had been lying out for a while. The “fresh mint tea” was indeed very fresh, although the amount of mint in the tea was rather sparse.

All in all, if you are looking for a quick, informal, healthy bite to eat in the city center of Rotterdam then Spirit might be what you are looking for!

-SDJ

Opening Hours

Mondays through Fridays from 09:30 till20:30 (Buffet closes at 20:00)

Saturdays from 09:30 till 18:30

Sundays Closed

Contact

Spirit

In stores and on this website, you have probably come across different yet similar terms like ‘eco-friendly’, ‘organic’ and ‘biological’. These terms all tell you something about the way a product is doing something good for the environment. Chances are however, that you do not know how and if these terms differ exactly. We also understand if you don’t feel like doing research on it right away.

Therefore, we present to you: ’s list of Green Terms.

1. Green: Besides a lovely color we used for our logo, it is of course commonly associated with nature and the environment. Green products are ideally products that cause no harm to the environment when they are created, used and disposed of. However, there is a risk that products are ‘green-washed’, therefore it is always smart to check products for eco-logos.   

2. Environmental friendly:  Means ‘not being harmful towards the environment’, and therefore is a very broad term. Organic materials are for example eco-friendly, but not everything that is eco-friendly is organic.

3. Eco-friendly:  Is often used interchangeably with the previous term, and also means that it does not harm the environment.

This vintage shop for both men and women lives up to its name: Cheap Fashions sells cheap clothes. However, the quality varies. In this shop, you can find a great-looking coat for only €30,-, but they also sell old shoes that have clearly seen better days. Clothes are arranged in neat categories, jeans are even ordered by size. The amount of accessories is impressive, including nice hats, scarves, bags, you name it.

  The yellow-painted walls of Cheap Fashion are covered in posters, upbeat music playing in the background: the shop has a fun vibe, that gets even stronger when you go downstairs. Skim through the shoe department and the sales section, and go to the back of the area downstairs, where a whole variety of dressing-up stuff is waiting for you: kimonos, pink fluffy stuff, tiger prints and a lot of latex. If you’re going to a costume party, we suggest you to browse through this part of the shop. All in all, a nice alternative to the mainstream fashion scene.

 -IS

Opening Hours

Mondays closed

Tuesdays through Thursdays from 9.30 till 17.30

Fridays from 9.30 till 20.30

Saturdays from 9.30 till 16.30

Sundays closed

Contact

Cheap Fashion

Want to get to know the gROwDAM Team?

Interviews with insiders. We at gROwDAM wish to help our readers to find eco-friendly places in Rotterdam.

To find out what insiders from the business think about our idea, we asked the shopkeepers from Buiten and the Hubshop some questions about the green cityscape in Rotterdam.

Here are the highlights and some interesting thoughts from the interviews:

Interview with Shopkeeper from Buiten:

Interview with owner of HubShop:

We went to New Fork on Wednesday afternoon at around 13:00 to find out it was quite popular since almost all the tables were taken. However, the service there is pretty fast so it didn’t take long to find a free table.

When walking into New Fork you can already tell that it is an environmentally friendly restaurant. The whole lunchroom radiates a kind of green and healthy energy. The restaurant is quite light due to the simple clean uncluttered concept and the big windows separating the different spaces. Not only does New Fork provide a nice space for a quick lunch but also for meetings since they provide free wifi and an outlet at every table. It is also a great place to kick back and relax in one of their lounge chairs enjoying the jazzy music while waiting for your food, which after ordering at the counter will be, brought to you.  

They offer a wide variety of sandwiches/salads/yogurt at a reasonable price (€2 - €6) and a lot of other healthy snacks such as smoothies, freshly squeezed juices and fruits. The sandwiches are amazingly good and you can tell just by looking at them that they are made of healthy and fresh products. And make sure you’re hungry because you get a nice big sandwich, which is definitely your money’s worth!

All in all, New Fork is a great place to have healthy honest lunch or snack in the shopping center of Rotterdam. No time to sit and enjoy your lunch at New Fork? No problem! At New Fork you can place your order and get your food delivered!

-SDJ

Opening Hours

Mondays through Fridays from 09:00 till 17:00

Saturdays from 09:30 till 17:00

Sundays from 12:00 till 17:00

Contact

New Fork

Serving the seasons! That’s what Het Lokaal stands for. They do not only use products that are specific to the time of year (like pumpkin in autumn, and red fruit in summer), they also respond to the different needs that people have depending on whether leaves are dropping, snow is falling, little crocuses appear, or the sun is burning. 

This means that when the cold is  creeping under your clothes, you can get a warm cup of cocoa (not to be forgotten, one can  choose from 10 flavors!), a nice Dutch “stamppot” (one of them prepared with truffle!), or a stack of comforting traditional American pancakes in the morning.   

 In the late spring, Het Lokaal  slowly transforms into a respectable ice cream parlor for hot summer days. This is where they take up a unique place within the Nieuwe Binnenweg, as they are the only ones offering the joys of ice cream. For those of you who are frightened by the idea of having to choose between the 16 different flavors, a wonderfully “shaken” iced tea can be a nice and welcome alternative. 

Het Lokaal offers you a calm and cozy place to sit and read the paper accompanied by a solid cup of coffee, or to enjoy a nice pot of fresh tea (at the moment: mint or ginger) over a good old chat with your friends. The feel inside brings back that little bit of nostalgia from the primary school, with the typical chairs and tables. However, they don’t take this classroom atmosphere too far. The spacious terrace (that does need to be prepared for warmer days) and the exposed brick wall, give Het Lokaal a grown up, and sophisticated edge. This upscale ambiance is supported by pleasant jazz and soul in the background. And to top things off, from now on, every last Sunday of the month Het Lokaal opens its doors all through the early evening for you to enjoy a nice drink while listening to soul provided by a selection of guest DJs.

Pricing is very fair, and the menu is always changing and full of interesting, surprising dishes. This makes Het Lokaal the ideal stop at the end of the longest shopping street of Rotterdam. No matter what the weather is like, you will find whatever you are craving for and more, at Het Lokaal!   

-AB

Opening Hours

Mondays from 11.00 till 18.00

Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10.00 till 18.00

Sundays from 12.00 till 18.00

Contact

Het Lokaal

Great little biological market in the heart of Rotterdam.

Every Tuesday and Saturday!

As we discovered, there are plenty of nice eco-friendly places in Rotterdam where you can grab a bite and do your groceries. The next big question is: What does Rotterdam have to offer when it comes to eco-friendly clothing?

One thing you can do is to shop at vintage or second-hand clothing stores in Rotterdam (Check other gROwDAM articles). Another thing you can do is visit shops that offer new clothes that are made out of organic materials. Either way you can do something good for mother earth in a stylish way. Finding authentic organic clothing stores in Rotterdam, has however proven to be quite a challenge. The few places we did find pretty much confirmed the ‘hippie-shop-where-your-mother-would-go’ stereotype. But luckily, there is another way to get hold on fashionable organic items. There are namely a couple of Dutch brands known for their use of organic materials, which conveniently are also sold in some retail-stores in Rotterdam. By purchasing products from these brands, you help the Dutch organic fashion industry to grow.

Here are three Dutch organic brands you should know and where you can find them:  

Intoxica Jeans: An Amsterdam-based fashion brand that uses eco-friendly materials such as bamboo and even paper. (Try this shop: Woei. And visit www.intoxica-jeans.com)

Kuyichi: This organic jeans brand has its main office in the Dutch city Haarlem, and is known for its strong focus on sustainable concepts and fair trade.  (Can be found at Men At Work and the Bijenkorf, or online at www.kuyichi.com)

Hoodlamb: Another Amsterdam based brand, which emphasizes style and comfort in a cool way, using organic fabrics like hemp.    (Try Connor’s surf-shop and check out www.hoodlamb.com)

Jas is an organic outlet shop that offers a 50% discount on all its products.

A nice alternative for the (very expensive) regular organic clothing shops, but the fact that it is an outlet does mean that the range of clothes is not very up-to-date, and not all sizes are available. The shopkeeper is a friendly guy who is eager to help you find something that fits.

We feel that Jas mainly confirms the non-fashionable image of organic clothing, which is a pity. However, new items arrive every day and you might just get lucky and find something nice between all the beige, typically ‘eco-style’ clothing.

-IS

  Opening Hours

Mondays from 13.00 till 18.00

Tuesdays through

Thursdays from 10.00 till 18.00

Fridays from 10.00 till 21.00

Saturdays from 10.00 till 18.00

Sundays closed 

Contact

Jas

This organic supermarket-slash-lunchroom has a welcoming smell of freshly baked products, accompanied by mellow jazz music in the background. When we visited it on a Tuesday afternoon it was completely empty, but according to the (very friendly) shopkeeper, the weekends are mostly busy times, as many people stop by to eat there. To facilitate the needs of busy working people, the little lunchroom even has free wifi.

  We really enjoyed the atmosphere of the shop, especially the jazzy music. The fresh and homemade products look and smell amazing, but there is a pretty big price tag attached to all this good stuff. For instance, for a jar of pasta sauce, you will pay around €5, which is quite a lot, even when considering the fact that it is organic. However, having lunch at Buiten is not expensive in comparison to other lunchrooms, as you pay €3 to €9 for a lunch dish (for instance a sandwich or quiche).

  The counter filled with different kinds of cheese and meat is very tempting, but again, the prices are not really budget-friendly. All in all, a great shop with good, honest and fresh products, that does come with a price tag. Another plus, noted by one of our team members: Buiten sells Evermore coffee, which is quite unique. 

-IS

Opening Hours

Monday closed

Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10.00 till 19.00

Sunday closed

Contact

Buiten

We entered Het Bammetje on a Tuesday afternoon at 15:30, and happened to be the only customers in this small lunch café. During lunch hours though, it is a very popular and busy place to eat. The interior of Het Bammetje consist of a lot of yellow and wood, which gives it a light, cheerful and welcoming atmosphere. In this café, there is (surprisingly) no music, but your lunch will be accompanied by soothing kitchen sounds in the background.

At the counter in the front of the café you can buy their home-baked bread and a wide variety of sweet pastries. Down the stairs you look straight into their bakery and kitchen, and upstairs are a few tables where you can have a high-quality, but very moderately priced sandwich or coffee. Sandwiches range from €2,40 to €4,95, and are all made on home-baked, biological bread. Especially the chicken topping with mayonnaise and chutney is a unique, but surprisingly tasty combination. Also, one of our team members refers to Het Bammetje as ‘the place where they sell the best brownies in all of Rotterdam’. The service was quick, as we were the only customers, but also very friendly. Het Bammetje is open from 7:30, and serves breakfast for early as well as 'little time' birds.

So far so good, but Het Bammetje also has some flaws: the stairs and small, somewhat uncomfortable seats make it a little unsuitable for the elderly or disabled.

If you’re not taking your grandma with you for lunch, however, we do highly recommend the lovely sandwiches, coffee and pastries.

-IS

Opening Hours

Mondays closed

Tuesdays through Saturdays from 7:30 till 17:00

Sundays from 9:00 till 16:00

Contact

Het Bammetje

This little eco-giftstore has a lovely  welcoming atmosphere. Inside the shop, there is a kitchen where customers can make themselves a cup of coffee or tea, as the owner wants people to feel at home and relax in his shop. The Hubshop sells products from different companies and  designers, who have all rented a box to display their goods. The range of products is quite ‘mainstream eco-store’, as it sells small gifts, t-shirts, jewellery, tea, chocolate, accessories, all for a pretty high price.

All the products in the shop have a sustainable or fair-trade history, as most of the boxes are rented by designers who do not have their own shop, but do want to sell their good and fair products. We loved the atmosphere in The Hubshop, and would come back to have a cup of coffee and chat with the friendly Swedish owner. However, some prices really are quite high, making it a very tempting but not so wallet friendly store.

-IS

Opening Hours

Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10:00 till 18:00

Contact

The Hubshop

Spring is in the air! The sun is shining bright on Rotterdam’s static brick and concrete structures. And in the parks, nature is slowly waking up, enlightening us with its fresh and hopeful scents. Let’s have a picnic!

Fortunately, Rotterdam’s “Picknick” offers you just the place to do so. It’s not out in the open, but it undoubtedly oozes with the flirtatious feel of spring! Picknick is an authentic and wonderfully creative breakfast, lunch, and snack-time place. At Picknick, they care for what they serve. Everything is of great quality, with a lot of homemade products (new: jams, curds, chutneys!), local ingredients, and fair/ biological produce. They get their bread from quality baker “Het Flaamsch Broodhuys”, and their amazing coffee is form “Man met Bril” (guaranteed fresh, as they deliver their beans only a week after burning). And not to be forgotten, Peter’s date-tart is extraordinary!  

You will immediately feel welcome in Picknick’s cute, warm, and low key interior. Thought has been given to every single detail, while still remaining loose and unforced. Part of the experience is the staff. They will greet you with an enormous smile, and are always happy to provide you with an enthusiastic explanation of their versatile and season-based menu.

For a kick-ass espresso (automatically accompanied by a glass of tap-water), and a Frisbee-sized oatmeal-cookie, you pay the very reasonable price of two and a half euro. The menu is exciting and original, with highlights in the form of “Nutella” of the house, Pastel de Nata, cinnamon-buttered scones, and goat cheese with citrus thyme and rose pepper.

Picknick has a table for everyone, and that includes you! Go check them out as soon as you can, to not only smell, but also taste spring.  

-AB

Opening Hours

Mondays from 10.00 till 18.00

Tuesdays through Saturdays from 8.00 till 17.30

Sundays from 10.00 till 17.30

Contact

Picknick