Kamu brings coffee and bicycles together

By the window, a mother is sitting with her young daughter drinking coffee, while a few people are working on laptops at the long table. Shortly after, someone enters for a repair on their racing bike. Kamu (pronounced Kamoe) means 'mate' in Finnish. That is the essence of Kamu: a cosy living room where everyone is welcome, and where you can have lunch and coffee with your mates, open your laptop to work, or tinker with your bike.

A special place, although manager Sophie may not realise that anymore. "For me, this place is very normal, because I have been working here for five years. But people who come here for the first time are always very impressed. Firstly by the size of the place, but also by the combination: coffee with cycling. When I first started working here, I didn't like coffee and I didn't cycle. Now things have changed," Sophie laughed. "I now have my bike repaired here and I regularly go cycling with former colleagues. Even after five years, I am still learning new things about cycling and coffee."

A flat white, espresso, cappuccino or perhaps cold brew instead? The baristas at Kamu take their coffee quite seriously. They have been working together with White Label Coffee, a coffee roastery from Amsterdam, for years. "But we also always have coffee from a guest roastery, from roasteries in Rotterdam to Scandinavia."

At Kamu you can go when your bike is broken, but you can also assemble a new bike there. “You can buy all the bikes you see here”, says Sophie. “We sell road bikes, but also gravel bikes. And if you've seen a Focus bike you like, you can borrow it for a few weeks before we order it. That way you can test the bike properly first.”

Cycling enthusiast? From Kamu, various cycling routes of different distances start. These routes are compiled by Bjorn Kamman, the route designer of Kamu. “During these evening rides we start and end at Kamu. At the end of the ride we have another beer. That's when you really notice that Kamu is a community where everyone is welcome.”

Kamu focuses on a vegetarian lunch menu. “All Kamu colleagues eat vegetarian. We want to show that you can also enjoy delicious food without meat,” explains Sophie. The pastries at Kamu are partly vegan. “Before I started working here, I had never baked a cake,” says Sophie. “But my grandfather was a pastry chef, so maybe I didn’t get it from a stranger after all. During the pandemic, we had a lot of time to experiment with vegan pastries. But we still bake the 'unhealthy' carrot cake and lemon cake,” Sophie laughs. “Since then, we make all our pastries ourselves. Except for the apple pie from Het Klooster, that remains the best.”