Tunes Bar (Closed)

Words by Simon Difford

Address: Conservatorium Hotel Amsterdam, 27 Van Baerlestraat, Amsterdam , 1071 AN, Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0) 205 700 000
Email: info@conservatoriumhotel.com
Website: view Tunes Bar (Closed)’s website
Style: Hotel bar
Food: Tapas/plates & dishes
Established: 2011

Review

A very chic, goth black and uber modern bar in a grand old building which now houses a very slick hotel of which this bar is part. The building is so grandiose that it could equally have been a museum or parliament building.

Such a fabulous building screams for 5-star service and such standards combined with stark design and splendid location have established Tunes Bar as a popular haunt for fashionistas and business types alike.

A line of booths with built in plush banquet seating faces a glass fish tank-like communal high table. Black venetian blinds covering the full height windows in the far wall ensure light is prevented from pervading the dim cold interior. On a sunny evening they cry to be opened like the dusty drapes in an old mothballed mansion.

Why tunes? Perhaps because ambient music plays at just the right volume. Perhaps due to the resident DJs on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays. But it is actually due to the building formally being the Sweelinck Conservatorium, encompassing three musical institutes.

Sadly this is not the formidable cocktail bar it was when it first opened but thankfully it's also.not as hectic.