A Rotterdam memory
Wine, juice and a little theatre.
At Fred, the table could follow the menu with a wine pairing or an alcohol-free juice pairing. The wines stayed the stronger memory; the juices were less remarkable, but the choice made the evening feel deliberately paced for everyone at the table.
And then there was the detail that keeps returning in the retelling: the famous toilet. Fred is said to be home to one of the Netherlands’ most extravagant bathrooms, with gold-toned, richly decorated walls. Whether it is truly the country’s most expensive toilet hardly matters — it became part of the story.
Some restaurants are remembered for a dish. Others also leave you talking about the bathroom.
The pink, playful Fred dessert remains the photograph that holds the evening in the archive.