Amsterdam restaurant closes weeks after getting Michelin star; More to come, ING warns
Vanderveen restaurant on Beethovenstraat in Amsterdam will close its doors this week, just a month after it won its first Michelin star. The restaurant couldn’t survive several problems, including coronavirus debts, the restaurant management said. “On the 20th of May 2023, we will serve our last dishes.” Vanderveen is by no means the only restaurant in trouble, with ING predicting “significantly more bankruptcies and closures” in the sector this year
“It is with pain in our hearts that we inform you that Vanderveen will close its doors,” the management said on Facebook. “Over the last months, we hoped to find a solution for the different problems we have as a business (location, corona debts, etc.). Unfortunately, this was not possible. The problems have caught up with us.”
In April, Vanderveen was one of 17 restaurants to get their first Michelin star. The Michelin guide described the restaurant as “relaxed, vibrant, cool” with “intense” dishes often prepared with everyday ingredients. “High quality cooking, worth a stop!”
“The expectation is that the number of business closures and bankruptcies in the hospitality industry will be significantly higher in 2023 than in 2022,” wrote ING Bank analyst Katinka Jongkind in a report published on Tuesday. “Restaurants and cafes in particular cannot always fully pass on the higher costs to the customer, which will ultimately be at the expense of the profit margin.”
On top of that, companies that were able to delay paying tax debt during the pandemic had to start making payments last October. A total of 1.5 billion euros is outstanding, with repayment likely to compound financial issues “resulting in business closure or bankruptcy.”
Overall, researchers at ING Bank have predicted a “moderately positive” period for the hospitality sector in 2023 and 2024. This may be bolstered by revenue figures contrasted against 2022, when the sector still faced coronavirus restrictions during the first quarter of the year. On top of that, tourism is expected to continue to rise, particularly as nearly all pandemic-related travel restrictions have been lifted.
