Although marijuana has been sold in various clubs and dance halls in cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague since the 1950s, coffee shops have only really emerged since the 1970s. Before that, however, there were already a number of public points of sale in the Netherlands, in which beat clubs played an important role.
The first coffee shop started as a beat club
Before the first real coffee shops opened their doors, marijuana was sold in some beat clubs in the 1960s. After belonging mainly to the jazz scene of the larger cities for a long time, it spread to other parts of the Netherlands and to the emerging beat clubs over the course of the decade. Sarasani youth society started in Utrecht in 1968. The name refers to the eastern German circus Sarrasani, which previously used the building for the storage of materials. The beat cellar was managed by Holly Hasenbos. He had bands such as Golden Earring, Q65, Cuby + Blizzards and Ekseption perform there. From the start, the Utrecht club had a house dealer, who, according to tradition, kept his soft drugs in the basin with caimans in the youth club. In the first half of the 1970s, Sarasani took the shape of a coffee shop instead of a beat club. After selling just under ten kilos to a German customer, the coffee shop was eventually closed by order of the mayor in 2007.
From big city to Wadden Island
In addition to Utrecht, there was also a Sarasani near Den Burg, on the Wadden island of Texel. Just like in Utrecht, the name came from the Sarrasani circus, and it was actually a beat club with live music. The barn in which the club was located was rented from Mr. Keizer, a former steep wall rider for the circus. Fred Brinkhorst and Armand André de la Porte were the founders of the Texel beat club, which quickly became known among young people in the Netherlands and northern Germany. After opening in the summer of 1966, it immediately attracted almost 20,000 visitors in just a few months. Well-known bands at the time such as The Outsiders, Sandy Coast and Tee Set performed there. On July 19, 1970, Q65 recorded the B-side of their LP Afghanistan. According to the band members, the record was named after the hashish that was sold by the house dealer in Sarasani’s hall. The Texel beat club would continue to exist until 1976. This is one example of a club where a house dealer was active, but of course this was not the only one in the pre-coffee shop era. What was new was that the sale of soft drugs had now spread from the big cities to the Wadden Islands.
Mellow Yellow, the oldest existing coffee shop
Mellow Yellow on the Vijzelgracht (photo: Amsterdam.info / Source: Budgetplaces.com, Flickr (CC BY-SA-2.0)
The first real coffee shop was opened in 1972 in a former bakery in Amsterdam, by Wernard Bruining. In 1973, it was officially turned into a teahouse where marijuana and hashish were for sale. It was named Mellow Yellow, after a song by the Scottish singer Donovan. In the early years, soft drugs were still sold inconspicuously. For example, the dealer did not have a permanent counter in the coffee shop, but was among the visitors where customers could speak to him. The teahouse and coffee shop concept was followed within a few years. In 1975, two more coffee shops were opened, Russia and The Bulldog, so that there were four public and specialized sales points in the Netherlands. Three of these were in Amsterdam, the fourth was in Utrecht.