Holland Tunnel
A Breezy Dutch Café in the East Village

The Netherlands is off to a great decade.

The Flying Dutchmen made it to the finals of the World Cup, Royal Dutch Shell didn’t spill anything, and Holland’s economy has at long last recovered from the great tulip bubble of 1637.

Riding the blazing hot streak is Vandaag, a brand-new looker of a Dutch/Scandinavian café, cocktail den and all-around breezy neighborhood hangout, just opened in the East Village.

If you’re a fan of glorious sunshine, this may just be your new go-to: the entire front of the restaurant is one big picture window, with light beaming in on the sparsely furnitured, minimalist room decked in light blues, yellows and pictures of natty gentlemen riding bicycles.

It’s sort of like an east side Café Select, where you may find yourself making excuses to come by in the morning (for coffee and housemade cheese danish), at lunch (to sit at the large metal bar for a sun-soaked meal of oxtail croquettes and smoked, pickled sausage) or late night for a pork/beef/gouda burger and some beer/bourbon/egg white cocktails.

The whole place has the feel of an Amsterdam café, without pressure to do much of anything except hold languid conversations, munch on strange pickles (cherries, pine needles, string beans and 70 others) and work your way through the strong beer, house-infused akvavits and gin-heavy cocktail list.

Well, not totally like an Amsterdam café...