Venue provided complimentary food and drinks during Sherika’s visit for this feature. The Hague Online retained editorial control, and the views expressed are the writer’s own
Ask most people about their favourite part of a meal and the answer comes quickly: dessert. Yet at most restaurants, it’s the last thing on the table and the first thing we skip when we’re full. The Dessert Room turns that around.
The idea behind The Dessert Room belongs to Richard Morris, an American who grew up in Chicago and has spent nearly thirty years living abroad. It began on a quiet late-autumn evening, when his then ten-year-old daughter wanted ice cream from their neighbourhood ice-cream parlour, and couldn’t understand why it was closed until spring.
Her question brought back a childhood ritual. In Chicago, families like Richard’s would head out after weekend dinners to enjoy dessert. Something sweet was reason enough for a night out, and it was a tradition he had missed for decades. It reminded me of my own childhood, when we would go to Milky Lane for ice cream and waffles. My fellow South Africans will know exactly what I mean.
The more he thought about it, the more he noticed a gap. The Netherlands has extraordinary restaurants, pastry chefs, and chocolatiers, but remarkably few places where dessert itself takes centre stage, where the final course becomes the main event.
The Dessert Room is an evening tasting experience devoted entirely to dessert: three courses, each paired with a drink, created by exceptional local chefs and restaurants. The line-up changes with every edition, which makes each one an intimate occasion and a chance to discover pastry talent and new flavours. New for those who want to make a full night of it, guests can now enjoy a light dinner beforehand and drinks afterwards.
My first course was a bright, citrusy orange roulade with orange curd and chocolate cream. It came paired with a tequila sunrise, a playful and clever match that echoed the orange in the dessert and set a fun tone for the night.
The second course was a beautifully constructed dessert cube of trifle, layered with almond chiffon, raspberry compote, and jasmine cream and paired with a raspberry and almond cordial. The jasmine gave it a delicate floral note, and the cordial tied the flavours together without overwhelming them. Both courses created by new Patissier-in-Residence, Murit Sonneveld Mak.
The final course was a rich chestnut mousse with dark chocolate and cognac caramel, by guest chef Justin Koopman of Aan de Zweth. It was served with a brut Selección cava, whose crisp bubbles cut through the richness and made it the perfect way to end the night.
What I loved most is how The Dessert Room gives dessert the attention it rarely gets. There is no pressure to save room and no rushing to the finish line. You can linger over something sweet, talk about it, and discover something new from the chefs behind it. The food was fantastic, and the evening felt warm and celebratory, as though sweetness really is reason enough to go out.
From one simple request for ice cream has grown a different kind of night out, one where the final course becomes the first reason to go.
*I was kindly invited to experience this meal, and as always, my thoughts are honest and entirely my own
The Dessert Room takes place once a month, upstairs at Cafe Paloma ( Anna Paulownaplein 1), with the autumn edition scheduled for 18 November. Find out more here
Photos: Sherika Rooplal-Clappers.
Do you have a story about your own café, restaurant or bar in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
Venue provided complimentary food and drinks during Sherika’s visit for this feature. The Hague Online retained editorial control, and the views expressed are the writer’s own
Some restaurants feed you. The great ones transport you. La Bruschetta & Co, tucked along The Hague’s charming Denneweg, is in the second category. From the moment you walk in, something shifts. The walls are lined with photographs of Puglia — sun-bleached coastlines, dusty piazzas, the kind of images that make you want to book a flight immediately. Copper pots and pans hang overhead, a gift from the owner Francesca’s father, and the whole space carries the warmth of a family kitchen rather than a restaurant. Informal, cosy, and entirely unpretentious — this is exactly the kind of place you want to find on evening out.
Francesca opened La Bruschetta in 2018, leaving her home region of Puglia in search of new opportunities and a bigger life. She brought with her something that cannot be manufactured: a deep, lifelong relationship with food. Growing up in the south of Italy, cooking was not a skill you learned from a book — it was something absorbed at the kitchen table, passed down through generations, inseparable from family and memory. That upbringing is present in every dish that leaves her kitchen.
In the early days of La Bruschetta, Francesca’s mother would make fresh pasta by hand in front of the restaurant window — and locals along the Denneweg would stop to watch. It is one of those details that tells you everything you need to know about what this place is built on. Today, nearly 90% of the staff are from Puglia, which perhaps explains why the experience feels so cohesive and genuine.
The menu leans heavily into the traditions of Apulian cooking, and the pasta is where La Bruschetta really earns its reputation. It is, without question, the course most recommended by regulars — and having tried both the seafood pasta and the Tartufo truffle pasta on my visit, I understand why completely. The seafood pasta was rich and deeply flavoured. The truffle pasta was elegant and indulgent in equal measure and quite the theatrical watching it being prepped in the giant parmesan rind before being elegantly plated. Both felt entirely authentic — not the watered-down version of Italian cooking so often found elsewhere, but the real thing.
The grilled rib eye was equally impressive – well-rested, and treated with the respect good meat deserves. The mixed seafood platter was light, cooked well and included a good variety. And then there were the desserts, classics like tiramisu and sgroppino, which I will simply say should not be skipped under any circumstances. The wine list is well-considered and the mocktails are a thoughtful touch for those not drinking.
What strikes you most by the end of the meal is how rare it is to find a place that has held onto its identity so firmly. Eight years in, La Bruschetta still feels like a small, family-run restaurant in the south of Italy — the kind of place where the owner knows the regulars by name, the recipes haven’t changed because they don’t need to, and the food on your plate carries the weight of real tradition behind it.
The Denneweg is already one of The Hague’s most beloved streets. La Bruschetta & Co is one of the very good reasons why.
La Brushetta & Co is open for lunch and dinners Tuesday – Saturdays on Denneweg 57. Follow them on Instagram to stay updated
Photos: Sherika Rooplal-Clappers
Do you have a story about your own café, restaurant or bar in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
Invited by the venue to experience the workshop. The Hague Online retained editorial control, and the views expressed are the writer’s own
Ever wanted to make pasta, pizza or focaccia from scratch? Well, its easier than you think.
I recently attended a pizza-making workshop with Macché in The Hague, and left with flour on my hands, a very full stomach, and the warm, slightly chaotic feeling of having spent an afternoon in someone’s Italian grandmother’s kitchen. In the best possible way.
Macché is the brainchild of couple Antonella Cerroni , originally from the south of Italy, and Alessandra Soro, who hails from Rome. The two have been living in the Netherlands for around ten years, and the story of how Macché came to be is as charming as the workshops themselves. When the couple were saving up for their wedding, a friend asked them to teach her how to cook. The idea planted a seed — why not share what they knew with more people? What started as a way to save for a wedding became a genuine passion for watching others discover the joy of Italian cooking. Later, they were joined by Daniele Di Bella from Sicily, who had moved abroad to The Netherlands wanting to experience life in a new country. With a background in Michelin-starred restaurants and previously head baker positions, Daniele brought an added layer of craft and expertise to the team.
Macché is coming up on its first year, and already the Italian community in The Hague — which, it turns out, is a significant and tight-knit one — has embraced it warmly. Antonella tells me that whenever you mention you’re from Italy, people in the city simply light up.
What makes Macché stand out, beyond the warm and welcoming atmosphere, is that all of their workshops are entirely vegan. This might surprise some, but it really shouldn’t — Italian cooking has been naturally plant-forward for centuries.
Long before “plant-based” became a trend, the culinary tradition known as cucina povera — literally, “the cooking of the poor” — was the backbone of Italian food culture. In the rural and working-class communities of the south, particularly in Puglia, Calabria, Campania, and Sicily, families ate what they could grow or store: legumi such as beans, lentils, and chickpeas; wild greens; tomatoes; garlic; onions; ancient grains like farro; and always, always olive oil. Meat was a luxury that most simply could not afford. Livestock required land, feed, and resources that peasant families did not have — and when animals were kept, they earned their place through labour, milk, or eggs rather than ending up on the table. When meat did appear, it was typically reserved for major religious holidays, weddings, or the occasional Sunday feast, and even then used sparingly to flavour a large pot of stew rather than served as a centrepiece in its own right.
What cucina povera also gave us was an extraordinary philosophy of zero waste. Stale bread was never discarded — it was transformed into dishes that have since become icons of Italian cooking: ribollita, the hearty Tuscan bread and vegetable soup; pappa al pomodoro, a thick, warming tomato and bread soup; or ground into a crunchy topping for pasta in place of expensive grated cheese. Ingenuity, not abundance, was the mother of invention.
Antonella and Alessandra grew up cooking this way, learning around a family table in the way so deeply typical of Italian culture. Macché simply makes that tradition visible — and celebrated.
Looking ahead, Macché is planning a series of events that will take guests on a culinary journey through all the regions of Italy — a reminder of just how vast and varied Italian food culture truly is. From the butter-rich risottos of the north to the sun-soaked tomato sauces of Sicily, Italy is not one cuisine but many, and Macché wants to show The Hague all of them.
Whether you’re an experienced cook or someone who has never attempted fresh dough in their life, a Macché workshop offers something rare: the feeling of being welcomed into someone’s home, fed well, and sent back into the world a little happier than when you arrived. On the day, we made two pizzas — a tomato base with lemon ricotta, aubergine, and basil, and a white pizza with béchamel sauce, fried leeks, and parsley. Unexpected combinations, and so satisfying that you completely forget every ingredient on the table is vegan.
Photos by: Sherika Rooplal-Clappers
Keep an eye on their Instagram for upcoming regional tasting events — and book a workshop via their website – be quick as spaces fill up fast. Tip! A workshop also makes a great gift for the coming festive season
Do you have a story about your own café, restaurant or bar in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
Venue provided complimentary food and drinks during Sherika’s visit for this feature. The Hague Online retained editorial control, and the views expressed are the writer’s own
There’s a particular kind of idea that only makes sense once someone says it out loud: build an entire menu around the potato, in a country that eats them almost daily. At Potato Batata, tucked away on Maliestraat 1, that’s exactly what you can expect.
Lama Yazbeck, the owner of Potato Batata, is Lebanese born and bred. She arrived in the Netherlands five years ago, settling first in Amsterdam, where she found much of the food lacking in flavour and variety. When she moved to The Hague two years ago, she knew she wanted to bring something new to the city.
Foto: Anouk BoutenFoto: Anouk Bouten
Back in Lebanon, she had worked mostly in the NGO sector, but she also made and sold chocolate truffles from home as a side gig, and she enjoyed every minute of it. Eventually, she felt the calling to get back into food. This time, the question was what. So Lama did what many of us do when we’re searching for direction: she sat down with her mother and started listing meals.
Somewhere in that list, a pattern appeared. Potatoes kept turning up. In Lebanon, she told me, the potato isn’t a main ingredient, more of a supporting player. But the more they wrote, the more the idea made sense. The Netherlands loves its potatoes, and the quality is excellent. Why not take an ingredient the city already trusts and let it carry an entire menu?
It’s a lovely piece of reasoning, and a very expat one: start with what you know from home, and make it work for the place you’re in now.
The menu is potato from start to finish, with a Lebanese and Mediterranean flavour profile. There are wraps, potato salad, quiche-inspired pies, soufflé and, for dessert, a sweet potato pie. “All potato” sounds unusual, but the range is wider than you’d expect, and it’s clear that real thought went into moving one ingredient through savoury, comforting and sweet flavours.
I tried three dishes:
The messy potato wrap, filled with roast potatoes, coleslaw, pickles and lettuce, and served with a tangy sauce. Be warned: it is indeed messy!
The rustic potato pie, which is similar to a quiche, with basil, cherry tomatoes and olives running through the filling. The crust, made in-house, was flaky and perfectly cooked.
The sweet potato pie, which closes the meal and shows off the sweet potato in a lovely dessert.
The first thing you notice about the flavours here is how gentle they are. Lebanese cooking is often bold with garlic, lemon and fresh herbs, however here the food is simple and mild, comforting rather than punchy: the basil and olives in the rustic pie are present but polite, and the tangy sauce on the wrap is the liveliest flavour on the plate. All in line with a more Dutch palette.
Many items on the menu are homemade, like the hummus, and gluten free. Meat lovers, fear not: marinated beef is available and can be added to your meal. Around 90% of the ingredients are locally sourced, the meat is halal, and vegans will find great options too.
Foto: Anouk BoutenFoto: Anouk Bouten
Potato Batata is a place for a relaxed lunch, for anyone curious about a new concept, and for potato lovers, of whom The Hague has plenty. What it has is a clear idea, a personal story behind it, and a gentle, approachable take on Lebanese flavours.
Go for the crust, the comfort, and a menu that makes one humble ingredient do a surprising amount of work. Potato Batata has only been open for a few weeks, but plenty more is in store. They offer catering for events, and from November will be serving early dinners from 16:30 to 18:30, with more seasonal dishes such as mashed potatoes.
Photos provided by Lama Yazbeck/ Anouk Bouten for Potata Batata
Potato Batata is open for lunch on weekdays at Maliestraat 1 . Follow them on Instagram to stay updated
Do you have a story about your own café, restaurant or bar in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
Piet Heinstraat is one of my favourite streets in the city — lovely cafés, restaurants and stores line it, and you could easily spend half a day exploring it all. One of the most charming spaces there is, And Concept Store.
Run by Bénédicte Cador-Robinot, originally from Paris, the store has quietly been part of the neighbourhood for three years now. She brings her French eye for beautiful things to The Hague, both through her own handmade jewellery and a store filled with gorgeous finds.
Walk in and you’ll understand immediately why people lose track of time here. The store brings together artists from around the world, and every single piece is handmade: clothing, scarves, candles, jewellery, trinkets, the kind of gifts that feel personal rather than generic. It’s the sort of shop where you go in looking for one thing and leave half an hour later with three, all of them for people you love.
But what I really want to tell you about is the workshop I joined.
I sat down one Tuesday evening to make a pair of earrings using glass Miyuki beads, those tiny, jewel-toned Japanese beads that catch the light in a way that photographs never quite capture. There was no rush, no pressure to get it right the first time, just the quiet, repetitive motion of threading bead after bead while conversation drifted easily around the table.
It struck me, somewhere in the middle of it, how rare that kind of stillness has become. We fill our days with screens and speed, and here was a room full of people choosing instead to make something slowly, with their hands. It felt less like a craft class and more like a small meditation, the kind where you finish not just with a finished pair of earrings, but with your mind a little quieter than when you sat down.
The rising popularity of analog hobbies says a lot about what we’re all craving right now: fewer screens, less doomscrolling, more time spent actually making something with our hands.
If you’ve been looking for a reason to visit And Concept Store, let this be it, and mark your calendar for something extra special while you’re there. On 26 November, the store is hosting Pink Christmas, an evening of drinks and festive cheer to welcome the season in style. It’s the perfect excuse to start your holiday shopping somewhere that actually feels like a gift in itself.
So next time you’re wandering Piet Heinstraat, step inside. Browse slowly, pick up more than you planned to, and if you get the chance, sign up for a workshop. You might just leave with something you made yourself, and a little more stillness than you walked in with.
And Concept Store is open Tuesday – Sundays on Piet Heinstraat 92A with workshops on Tuesday evenings and one Saturday a month— follow them on Instagram for more details
Do you have a story about your own space in the city? Reach out to sherika@thehagueonline.com to possibly be featured.
Sherika Rooplal-Clappers is a contributing writer for The Hague Online, covering culture, lifestyle, and local events. With a passion for storytelling and international perspectives, she highlights the people, places, and experiences that make The Hague a dynamic city.
Photographer Eva Besnyö (1910 – 2003) was not only a witness to, but also a driving force behind the emancipation of photography. Together with her contemporaries, she experimented freely with a new visual language: away from painting, focused on reality, close-up, and full of dynamism.
This autumn, Fotomuseum Den Haag presents one of the largest retrospective exhibitions ever of Eva Besnyö’s work. It is composed of photographs from its own collection, the most extensive Besnyö collection in the world. Set against the backdrop of a profoundly changing Europe, the exhibition traces Besnyö’s life: from her first experiences with the camera in Budapest and her formative years in the raw Berlin of the 1930s to her life and career in Bergen and later Amsterdam, where she was part of a progressive creative network. The Second World War, which left deep scars, and her involvement with the Dolle Mina movement in the 1970s are also included. With vintage prints, archival material, magazines, and personal documents, the exhibition offers a rich picture of Besnyö’s oeuvre as well as of the twentieth century, in which political upheavals and the struggle for women’s emancipation are closely intertwined with her life and work.
“Besnyö possessed not only exceptional photographic talent but also entrepreneurial spirit. From her position as a migrant, she consistently managed to carve out a place for herself within leading artistic circles, build her own practice through photo assignments, and develop initiatives that advanced photography, including the groundbreaking exhibition Foto ’37 at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.” – Margriet Schavemaker, General Director of the Kunstmuseum and Fotomuseum The Hague
New Photography
Stylistically, a large part of Eva Besnyö’s work belongs to New Photography, a movement in which the camera was used to show the world in a new, objective, and experimental way. Surprising camera angles, strong diagonal lines, and clear compositions are characteristic of this. With a keen eye, she captures people, cities, architecture, and societal changes. Her photographs show the world as it was: modern, dynamic, and constantly in motion.
In the footsteps of a century
The exhibition traces Besnyö’s life, starting with her childhood in Budapest and her move to Berlin. Together with her then-lover John Fernhout, she exchanged Berlin for Bergen in 1932, where she formed a close friendship with her mother-in-law, Charley Toorop. Through her in-laws, she found herself at the forefront of the Dutch artistic scene. The Second World War marked a turning point in her life. The Jewish Besnyö had to go into hiding, and her work came to a standstill. In post-war Netherlands, she focused her camera on a society in transition: from reconstruction to women’s emancipation, of which her photographs of Dolle Mina have since become iconic documents. In addition to photographs and personal documents by Besnyö, a self-portrait by Charley Toorop and chairs by Gerrit Rietveld are also on display in the exhibition. This addition underscores the extent to which Besnyö was part of the artistic circle in the Netherlands during the 1930s.
Largest collection of Besnyö
In 2023, Fotomuseum Den Haag / Kunstmuseum Den Haag acquired an important collection of 341 prints by photographer Eva Besnyö. All of these photographs were printed in the darkroom by Besnyö herself or under her supervision. The collection includes, among others, the famous portrait of the little boy with the bass, portraits of artist friends such as Charley Toorop and Violette Cornelius, and the street scene taken on Starnberger Straße in Berlin with her characteristic diagonal lines.
This collection was in the possession of Iara Brusse, the daughter of Besnyö. The acquisition of the collection was made possible by a combination of purchase and donation, with support from the Erik Bos Fund.
Publication
Accompanying the exhibition is the publication of the same name, ‘Eva Besnyö – The Liberated Camera’. With text contributions by Maurits de Bruijn, Nienke Coers, Margriet Schavemaker, Iris Sikking, Lou Stoppard, and Willemijn van der Zwaan. The photobook was designed by Hans Gremmen and is published by Hannibal Books.
Biography
Eva Besnyö (1910 – Laren 2003) was born in Budapest. As a teenager, she received a camera from her father, and this proved to be a pivotal moment for the rest of her life. In Budapest, she took lessons from the renowned photographer József Pécsi, who encouraged her to leave for Berlin in 1930 to pursue photography. Due to the rise of fascism, she was forced to move to the Netherlands in 1932, where she quickly gained fame as a professional photographer. Besnyö played a crucial role in the development of Dutch photography in the 20th century. She was one of the most famous figures within the New Photography movement in the Netherlands, which was characterized by a modern, experimental approach and a focus on everyday subjects.
In addition to her artistic work, Besnyö was also socially engaged. In the 1970s, she used her photography as a means to draw attention to women’s rights. Her photographic oeuvre encompasses a wide range of subjects, varying from portraits and street photography to landscapes and abstract compositions. Eva Besnyö passed away on December 12, 2003, in Laren.
This exhibition is made possible in part by the City of The Hague, VriendenLoterij, Erik Bos Fonds, Vereniging Vrienden van Kunstmuseum Den Haag, and V-fonds.
The research preceding the exhibition and publication was carried out with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt (thanks in part to its Fund for Research into Modern and Contemporary Art).
