Fou

"You must be out of your mind", I guess the friends of Fou's owner Sigurd Snoeys said when he told them he wanted to start a wine bar in the Middeland neighbourhood of Rotterdam. With mostly Kebab, Shoarma and dodgy spy shops around, let's call this a "promising" side of the city. It takes serious guts to brightly look at the appreciation of artisanal wine shops and wine bars here, but Sigurd did. And how well he did it!

Within months this cosy wine bar on the street corner with an adjacent wineshop became booming with people from all over town. YUP's, urbanites, wine lovers, even the odd neighbourhood wanderer fill the seats. Combined with knowledge and skill, Fou is the latest wine hotspot of the harbour city and is full of promise. A nice terrace, some decent food, great wine, what more is there to like? Not the snobby or pretentious vibe you might feel in other parts of town, but a sincere, true-to-type place that Rotterdam really needed.

Together with his experienced team, Sigurd makes wine lovers feel at home at Fou. Good stemware, serving temperatures and an already (opened June 2021) rather extensive and diverse wine list make this one of the city's must-visit wine places. Reasonable prices add to the fun. Fancy natural cloudy obscure sparking, you'll find it. High-end Grand Cru Burgundy from Lafon, Leflaive or Dujac, here it is. Having built up relationships with suppliers for years, Sigurd knows his way around the Dutch wine scene and knows where to buy what.