Meet the owner of the best wine bar in Amsterdam
After biking through the charming streets of Amsterdam in direction of our guest, we finally arrived at Anita’s wine bar. It’s facing a canal which is surrounded by bikes and old trees hanging over boats. We entered in this cosy historical spot where you can find an impressive wine collection.
Could you tell me a little bit about Shiraz, Jardins des vins?
I opened Shiraz on the 1st November 2017, four year ago. I’m now running it together with my partner. We wanted to design a cosy space for people living in Amsterdam, for locals. It actually used to be really small. A few years ago we found out that there was a hidden garage behind the restaurant. We then had the possibility to transform it into a wine store which allowed us to widen our wine choices. A the moment we have 260 sorts of wines on the menu. We imported a lot ourselves from all around the world. Since 2019, we are nominated the best wine bar in The Netherlands.
Why did you call your winebar “Shiraz, Jardin des Vins”?
Shiraz is the appellation for grapes of wines. We also got inspired by a place in Iran that has the same name. It influenced our interior with the natural colours and warm atmosphere.
How did you discover Humble?
I saw them for the first time in a beautiful store in Eindhoven. And I thought “oh there is no wire on it, it’s great! That’s really something we need for Shiraz!“. I decided to order one to see how it looks in our bar. We liked it so much that we decided to order 12 of them. And we recently bought an other 12 lamps that we use at an other location on the Prinsengracht, which is an art gallery. I really like them. We’re searching for an other place in Amsterdam and for sure we will use them in the other place
as well.
Why did you choose the walnut Humble One?
We have a lot of wood here. It’s a cosy place with the tiles, furniture and wallpaper. So we thought this warm colour is perfectly matching with our interior. Plus, we have very similar light bulbs above the bar and you get a similar vibe with the bulb of Humble One.
How do people respond to the lights?
So many people are looking at the lamps. Almost every day I got asked “where can you buy it? How much is it?“. I’m really ambassador for the light.
