Jan Tabac Bremen

Let’s skip forward a few months from when I was in Spain to where I am now in Germany. Not long ago, restaurants here started to cautiously open their doors to the ‘new-normal’ world of dining and I immediately started going to eat in them. I could say that this was some heroic gesture to help out struggling local businesses (in small part true 🦸‍♂️), but if I’m honest, I just wanted to feed my restaurant addiction after this 2 month enforced hiatus 🤷🏼‍♂️
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The first meal out I hit the jackpot and found this incredible little local place @jantabac where the cooking is superb focusing on what’s in season and what’s local. The hospitality is the reason I’ve been back 3 times now. It really feels like you are being hosted by friends rather than at a restaurant. It’s hard to achieve this and I highly recommend you visit next time you are in the Bremen area 👍🏻
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Michelin Guide -
OAD -
W50Best - .

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Ok, I can already feel some of you judging me. Feel free to do so but please keep it to yourself unless it’s in a good spirit. Germany has, last Monday, opened a lot of it’s restaurant’s doors and this is two visits to our lovely local restaurant here in Bremen Vegesack that I made this week. Firstly to be an amazing boss and treat my sous chef Suzanne Bezuidenhoudt to a well deserved treat and secondly for some of our crew (who all live and work together) to let loose a little. I am of the view that I will follow the government’s guidelines in the particular place I am. We will all eat in a restaurant again at some point and personally I will be taking a cautious approach to supporting this sector again. I have discussed this with friends and some agree and some of course disagree when I tell them that I feel much safer going to a restaurant than when I go shopping as part of my job to feed the yacht’s crew. On both visits we were told outside the restaurant that we must wear face masks when not at the table, the customers were very well spaced apart, waiting staff and chefs were all wearing masks and gloves throughout the evening, when we came as a large party (from the same ‘household’) we were seated in a separate section of the restaurant and we were maybe two metres from a door that was open to the fresh air all evening which I guess would help with preventing an environment of stale air.
I am eating out now. I feel comfortable doing so and am extremely mindful of people that I come into contact with to hopefully put both of us at ease somewhat.
I’m going to start posting the meals that I have but am not going to write this whole disclaimer above as pretty much the same people read these.
After all that, if you are ever in Vegesack, Bremen Germany then this is the best spot to come to. We went on their reopening night. They had not been doing takeout, as the food doesn’t suit. They were overjoyed to be open again and able to support their staff and hopefully be pulled back from the brink of permanent closure. Speaking to the owner, the German government has been reimbursing her for paying 60% of her employees salaries and she has received that money back within 3 weeks, keeping her afloat just about. However, I certainly remember being a young cook and living pay cheque to pay cheque so when it comes to the basics of survival, namely food and rent, I can only imagine how hard it has been for these guys and girls. I’m not encouraging you to rush out but to certainly consider the situation where you are and then if you feel comfortable and it’s allowed, support some of your local small business like this. Or give them a call and see if they maybe do takeout.
Have a nice day 🙂 Less