Lars de Vries

Born and raised in the Jordaan, the part of Amsterdam that was a working-class neighbourhood until about 2005 and is now full of galleries and expensive coffee — but still has the brown cafés (bruine kroegen) that have been there since before the artists arrived. I cycle everywhere and I have done since I was four. I know the cycling routes through the city that avoid the tourist bikes on the Damrak, which brown café does the best bitterballen, and why Dutch food is better than its international reputation suggests if you know where to find it.