Early openers

[Fat_old_dwarf]

Whether the loser cruiser has dumped you at Duivendrecht or you're on a layover between the US and Dubai, sometimes you need a shop that opens at 7. This thread is devoted to them. I'm listing the ones I know or at least know of, and can edit this post as others supply more information. From best to worst, which is subjective, but then so much is. Given that we're generally talking about the first smoke of the trip, which may have been tiring, both product and toilet/sink facilities should be top class.

Ie Hulp

The clear winner on all counts. Decent menu, decent choice of drinks, decent staff, comfortable seating, clean facilities, cat. Not really any negatives -- you might not find exactly the strain you were looking for, but the odds are good that there's something that will get you into that Amsterdam mood. The potentially irritating fanboys and girls aren't up that early, and the atmosphere is usually good.

Central

Smoking's no longer allowed inside, unfortunately, but you can skin up or prime your pipe and even get a drink, though I wouldn't. If you've arrived at Centraal Station, worth visiting to pick up some of their reasonably priced offerings, even if you're not going to smoke them till you find somewhere more congenial.

Resin

A victim of the absurd school law, so only available on weekends and school holidays. Decent product, kinky decoration may not be to everyone's taste, but at least it's something. There was a new cat there the last time I was in. It falls down a bit on the sink front, as I seem to remember it's outside the toilet, turning teeth brushing into performance art. I might be wrong, though, so if someone knows the shop better, I'll change this.

Boerejongens Utrechtsestraat

Rates higher than 1e Hulp for product, but loses points for the smoking area. Not so bad if you're with someone, a nightmare on your own when it comes to juggling the doors and the buzzers for the toilet. Coffee expensive but good; they do food, and if they don't mind preparing it at that time of day (anyone know?) it could come in handy after a long trip.

Hunters Utrechtsestraat

Seville used to be here, the best of a bad lot of shops around Rembrandtplein, until Boerejongens took over the old Stix. Similarly, this Hunters outlet is adequate without being inspiring or worth specially seeking out. But even this was a pleasant surprise, as I'd expected worse from Hunters. Limited hash choice, but weed seemed decent and not overpriced -- ended up going for Jack Herer, which seems to be staging a mini-revival on menus. Clean washroom area with adequate space for an arrival wash and brush-up.

Bulldog Rockshop

If you can forgive the poor quality of the product - and I admit it's hard - this is the place to challenge your Bulldog preconceptions. Amazingly friendly, comfortable facilities, eminently suitable for most of your needs on arrival. Just pick up something to smoke from Central beforehand, and regard whatever you get from Bulldog as more of a cover charge. From what has been said here and what I saw for myself, herb might be better than the frankly sub-mediocre hash, so I might give that a try next time.

Amsterdamned (formerly Picasso)

Not bad, not great. Moderate and unmemorable product. Toilet is up two flights, and there is a sign instructing you not to empty your bowels into it, or it might get blocked. I shit you not -- literally, in this case.

Noon

Have bought from and smoked here later in the day, but it's always been a meh sort of shop for me. Nothing wrong with it, but no reason to go out of one's way to go there.

Prix d'Ami

Not much in this place's favour. I've never smoked here, and though I've bought OK honey hash from them a couple of times, they've mostly been sold out of what I wanted. Bouncers and the metal detector, of course, and if they really charge for the toilet, it's outrageous -- the inflated price for the coffee or soft drink is supposed to cover the facilities you consume it in. If it were the only coffeeshop in the Dam, I'd go there. It isn't. I don't.

Boerejongens West

Good product, but only B&F, so not very good if you were looking forward to that coffee and facewash.

UNRATED

The Stud

I'll leave this one unrated, as I only used it as a B&F and didn't ask if they were serving drinks at that time.

Speakeasy

I've passed this place later in the day, and though I've never been inside, I could see the menu, which I remember as the standard not-many-strains-all-Moroccan-hash sort you often get in local shops away from the centre. But it does claim to be open at 7.

Mediterané

Like Resin, for the present only on weekends and school holidays. I have passed it countless times without venturing in. My impression, quite possibly completely irrational, is of a tourist trap, although some of the reviews praise it as a real locals' place. Also, the acute accent irritates me, and I don't like palm trees. The menu appears decent if unspectacular, so perhaps someone less prejudiced would find it a refuge at chickenyawn.

Smoke Palace

Unlikely to be much good for early arrivals, as it's not particularly near any way of entering the city. The menus I've seen look disheartening in the extreme -- limited hash choices, all the green priced at the upper limit for the strain, nothing that jumps out and promises to be worth a visit. Also, there have been reports of customers getting stick for smoking their own, even though they've bought product from the shop as well. This is pretty much the height of cuntery for me -- obviously you buy a drink in a coffeeshop, and although you can't be compelled by law to purchase an illegal substance, being more or less bullied into doing so makes sense, particularly for shops with limited space. But once you've bought something, surely you're entitled to smoke any mix you like. So I doubt if I'll be trekking out here to test this one out, at any time of day.

El Guapo

Another central one that had been a victim of the schools law, but now opens from 7. I've never smoked or bought from there, but some people praised their hash once. Try it and report back.

Het Gelderse

Noticed on this visit that it opens at 7. I don't think I've done more than look in once here, but it gets decent reviews, so might give it a go sometime.

There are probably more, so tell us about them.

[Devore]

Very useful post and I 100% agree on 1e Hulp being the top for a Morning Wake and Bake.

Two places I will never visit again Prix D Ami and Picasso. So dissapointed with these two shops.

I usually go 1e Hulp for a couple of hours and then Siberie. By then my morning is done and I can start the serious weed crawlin!

[Papi]

So cool that we have such a good place and early opener! I am early bird so it is very useful to me especially when i write my essay all night long.

That's some new-age spam right here:D As for the 1eHulp, it seems like Larby is doing some major renovations inside the shops judging by the pics i saw. So i wouldn't count on Hulp being a perfect wakenbake place right now.

[Fat_old_dwarf]

As for the 1eHulp, it seems like Larby is doing some major renovations inside the shops judging by the pics i saw. So i wouldn't count on Hulp being a perfect wakenbake place right now.

That's why I started the thread. I knew I'd have to go elsewhere, and was hoping for someone to suggest a hidden gem. I don't think there is one, alas.

I'll edit the first post to reflect the latest updates. I stumbled across Best Friends while looking for the Stud, but it's pickup only. The Stud does have seating, but I'm not sure it's in use at that time of the day; I should have asked, but didn't really want to stay and smoke, if it's not the sort of thing others are already doing. Besides, I'd asked what the Nepal was like, and was told that it was black, which didn't strike me as terribly illuminating. (Not very nice, by the way; I should have learnt by now, but when you stumble across Nepal that is good it can be very good indeed.)

Either my memory of seeing 7am as opening time at Coffeeshop DNA is wrong or they've changed -- it's now 9am, so they're off the list. Unless you're 19 or 20, in which case you can't go in before 5pm, except on weekends. If it's to discourage the relatively young from bunking off whatever they're supposed to be doing during the daytime, I'd have thought they'd just go round the corner to de Kade, with service rather than a drinks machine, as well as pinball and table football.

I don't know how long the renovations at 1e Hulp are going to take, but until they are, the choice is a bit grim. Unless one of our resourceful members knows of something I've left out.

[Nuggz]

Nice informative post for sure, kudos. Question though, what in your professional opinion constitutes "early openers"? Opening at 7? Opening no later than 9-9:30 or so?

Stud is open at 9 I believe, and offers a sterile enough venue, with quality-to-price index only comparable with Amsterdam Genetics chains, so that would get a green light from me. Not to mention despite an admitted absence of "character" (per se) to its decor, it offers a more comfortable/convenient set up, tea bags, paper dispensers/tip bins, mini trash-cans and menus all neatly sit atop every table, and there's even what was once ubiquitous to the CS-scene the internet café style desktop computer set-up in the back.

If procuring product is sorted again I rally hard in favor of Hillstreet Blues opening at 9:30, better music selection, not too busy you can peacefully sit by yourself enjoy a coffee (both conventional and Amsterdam style) and easily snag one of the better seats in the house while doing so...

[Fat_old_dwarf]

Question though, what in your professional opinion constitutes "early openers"? Opening at 7? Opening no later than 9-9:30 or so?

Opening at 7, and definitely before 9. If there are any that open around 8 they'd be worth a mention, but with Utopia being the only one I know of (and 8.30 at that), I'm not sure they constitute a separate category.

I should have made it clear that the Stud is open from 7, but looked like a place that wouldn't really be gearing up to serving customers with drinks until later in the day. I might be wrong. But by the time I reached it and decided I wanted my desperately needed first coffee elsewhere, I calculated that by the time I got to anywhere else it would be 9, and there's a bit too much choice for desperation by then. So I went to Betty Boop, which has its own oddities at that time of day, but that's another story.

[Fat_old_dwarf]

Looks like 1e Hulp won't be open on my next trip, and Noon is geographically tricky, as I need to be in that area much later. So I may have to bite the bullet and go to the Bulldog (the one next to the closed Rokerij and Doors-now-the-Store). But of course there aren't any reviews of it, because nobody goes there, or at least is going to admit to having gone there. I'll have something decent from Central to smoke, but will be buying at least a g at Bulldog, so is there anything that anyone would recommend? I don't expect top quality, but I do hate going beneath mediocrity. I get that enough back home.

[Skull_Kid1888]

Me and my GF went in here years ago when staying very close by. It was when it still sold alcohol and we just dropped in for a drink and a smoke before retiring. Didn't buy any weed (even then it had a bad rep) but it was fine to chill in. Think Ed the head mentioned in one of his trip reports that the super silver from Bulldog was acceptable. I wonder at times just how bad a whole menu can be, perhaps the reputation the bulldog has for poor quality weed has developed a folklore all of it's own, when in fact if your looking for a smoke and somewhere to chill at that time of the morning it might be OK.

[Dave near London]

Back about 2011 , rather than pay an excessive NH breafast cost , zipped along for an affordable light breakfast, curiosity made me look at the menu and tempted - bought a bag of Chocolope. Had a nice big joint with the end of the breakfast and felt compelled to lie down for an hour afterwards. Had been caning it the night before , so not a beginner really.

People get sniffy about this place - but as a place where you can enjoy a beer and a spliff , watch people and maybe football, - unbeatable. Just wish we had this in London or Herts where I live .

[WLow]

Hunters on the Utrechtsestraat open at 7am, it's just along the road from Boer centrum. Not sure what bud quality is like, not been in a hunters since they don't sell bud on Warmoesstraat anymore. The place on warmo opens at 9.

[Fat_old_dwarf]

Hunters on the Utrechtsestraat open at 7am, it's just along the road from Boer centrum. Not sure what bud quality is like, not been in a hunters since they don't sell bud on Warmoesstraat anymore. The place on warmo opens at 9.

Cheers, I'll check it out, although Google seems to think it opens at noon. It might offer a better place to sit and smoke than Boerejongens, who get top marks for style for their smoking area, but it's a tad impractical. I think there may be another one just off Rembrandtplein that opens early - Andalucia? But apart from Boer, they're all pretty awful at any time of day.

I have now been to Bulldog Rock Shop. And I'm conflicted. Yes, the smoke was as bad as I'd feared – Nepal at €12 a g inferior to what Utopia sells at €8. And I can't help feeling I'm eating at McDonald's, as it were. But otherwise it was one of the best experiences I've had in a shop for ages. I'd expected the other customers to be clueless first-timers, because who else goes to a Bulldog? But I met someone from Oregon who'd lived in the Dam years ago and was visiting friends, and then a frequent layover visitor. Two of the staff of La Grotte came in for their W&B. The staff of the Bulldog itself were amazingly outgoing – I don't mind subdued service, so long as it's not actively hostile, but when you see people like this you realise what some more sensitive plants mean when they complain about rudeness elsewhere. I still don't understand why people go there when other shops in the vicinity are open, but it's certainly not the disappointment I thought it would be at opening time.

[Nuggz]

Hunters on the Utrechtsestraat open at 7am, it's just along the road from Boer centrum. Not sure what bud quality is like, not been in a hunters since they don't sell bud on Warmoesstraat anymore. The place on warmo opens at 9.

Cheers, I'll check it out, although Google seems to think it opens at noon. It might offer a better place to sit and smoke than Boerejongens, who get top marks for style for their smoking area, but it's a tad impractical. I think there may be another one just off Rembrandtplein that opens early - Andalucia? But apart from Boer, they're all pretty awful at any time of day.

I have now been to Bulldog Rock Shop. And I'm conflicted. Yes, the smoke was as bad as I'd feared – Nepal at €12 a g inferior to what Utopia sells at €8. And I can't help feeling I'm eating at McDonald's, as it were. But otherwise it was one of the best experiences I've had in a shop for ages. I'd expected the other customers to be clueless first-timers, because who else goes to a Bulldog? But I met someone from Oregon who'd lived in the Dam years ago and was visiting friends, and then a frequent layover visitor. Two of the staff of La Grotte came in for their W&B. The staff of the Bulldog itself were amazingly outgoing – I don't mind subdued service, so long as it's not actively hostile, but when you see people like this you realise what some more sensitive plants mean when they complain about rudeness elsewhere. I still don't understand why people go there when other shops in the vicinity are open, but it's certainly not the disappointment I thought it would be at opening time.

I believe said Hunters is the former Andalucía

[Marok21]

I believe said Hunters is the former Andalucía

The Hunters Coffeeshop on Utrechtstraat is the former Coffeeshop Sevilla... unless I'm very much mistaken

[Fat_old_dwarf]

Yep, Andalucia is on the other side of Rembrandtplein. I'm pretty sure it was open all permitted hours when I looked in and passed on the one time I was staying in the area, but that was years ago.

[Nuggz]

I believe said Hunters is the former Andalucía

The Hunters Coffeeshop on Utrechtstraat is the former Coffeeshop Sevilla... unless I'm very much mistaken

Well Seville is a city in Andalucia so that explains my confusion, anyway close enough!