On the 10th of December I got the sad news of the death of Adrianus Anthonius Cornelis Duyves. He became 89 years of age.
He was a famous entrepreneur in Amsterdam. In his early years he was a waiter in several important hotel-restaurants in Europe. He also was a waiter in the world famous restaurant of Nicolaas Kroese, ‘Restaurant d’Vijff Vlieghen’ in Amsterdam. Well known actors like Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Danny Kaye came to dine in this restaurant. Ad Duyves (as people called him) was the assistant of Nicolaas Kroese. Nicolaas Kroese was a relative of my grandmother.
Ad Duyes worked in his spare time in the small restaurant of his parents ‘Haesje Claes’ on the other side of the street ‘Spuistraat’ in Amsterdam. Restuarant ‘Haesje Claes’ opened it’s doors in the mid 70th of the 20th century. In several years he could buy the other buildings around ‘Haesje Claes‘. The motto of the restaurant was ‘From greaves till caviar‘.
I knew Ad Duyves from 1976. Because of problems with my hip I had to stay in a wheal chair for over a year. But my parents and I, we were always very welcome in his restaurant. It became one of my favorite restaurants.
Ad Duyves gave Hugo de Haan (his nephew) and me the opportunity to organise wine tastings with a lunch in the restaurant. I also had several other parties over there (with my family) like birthday’s and my wedding party in privat rooms.
Ad Duyves always worked very hard and ‘Haesje Claes’ became famous (worldwide) because of him and later on by Hugo de Haan.
Restaurant ‘Haesje Claes’ became a very social place. All kind of people worked there. Sometimes he also was a social worker. That was the great strength of Ad Duyves. To bring people together.
The clientele was also very diverse: from the rich and famous to the people of the street.
On the N-Z. Voorburgwal 304 in Amsterdam, Ad Duyves had a shop
‘GASTRONOMIENOSTALGIE.nl’ with very special requisites for restaurants and hotels.
He was an excepional business man and a perfect host. Almost everything was possible in restaurant ‘Haesje Claes‘.
For several years I called him on his birthday. Because he liked Paris a lot, he was mostly on that day in a nice hotel and dining in a good restaurant in this city.
Ad Duyves will be sadly missed.
Jirka dank voor dit droevige bericht.
Meerdere keren ben ik naar Haesje Claes uitgenodigd geweest en heb daar met mijn man en vrienden een gezellig en culinaire middag doorgebracht. Ik vind het nog steeds een groot gemis dat dit unieke restaureren niet meer open is.
Groet Ellen
Namens Hugo de Haan: ‘Mooi geschreven Jirka’.
Mooi geschreven Jirka. Hij was in de horeca wereld een groot en geliefd man, begrijp ik.
Ook wij hebben door jouw wijnproeverij kennis gemaakt met Haesje Claes. De sfeer was altijd uniek en Peter en ik hebben elke keer als wij daar kwamen genoten van het eten, de wijn en de gastvrijheid.
Groetjes,
Gloria van Zijl
Wat een bijzonder mens was Ad Duyvis toch! Hij heeft zeker bijgedragen aan
de goede dingen van Amsterdam.
Aan “ Haesje Claes” heb ik ook n mooie herinnering .
Met onze gezamenlijk familieleden hebben we daar gegeten!
Het was een bijzonder restaurant, dicht bij jullie “Galerie d’Eend”.
Mooi verhaal over over een mooi mens , Jirka!