Café & Restaurant Schlemmer

It all started with a flower shop: Van Houweninge & IJsselstijn.
Grandpa Van Houweninge lived above his flower shop and when the store moved, the space below was empty. Grandpa continued to live on the first floor, and that’s why we still call this space ‘Grandpa’s room’ today.
His son Chiem van Houweninge, together with Alexander Pola, wrote “Zeg eens AAAAA” in the room next to Grandpa.
Chiem and his sister-in-law Dorine de Vos fantasized about having their own restaurant. Due to the available space in Lange Houtstraat, their fantasy could become reality. Without any experience in hospitality, Dorine quickly obtained the necessary papers and wrote a business plan. For inspiration, she went to New York. It took one year to turn the ideas into actual realization. Performances of different genres were essential to the concept, and thus Schlemmer became a ‘café-tabac-animé’.
On October 1, 1984, the opening took place, and from that day on, the entire restaurant was full. It was a big but unexpected success.
The goal was to make Schlemmer an artist café, which made sense since the Royal Theatre is around the corner, attracting many actors, directors, and guests from the Arts Academy. Once you have that idea in place, you’ll see that it attracts other people as well.
From day one, many politicians came. This was not the target audience initially, but it turned out to be a logical consequence due to the location near the Binnenhof and the ministries. A client base that has almost always remained the same, with all regular nice guests.