The Gin Sum Club is in the old Rabobank building, but aside from the facade and the vault, which they left open in the basement across from the bathrooms, you'd never know it used to be a bank. The interior is spacious with tranquil lighting and modern appointments. It's got a deliberate NYC look and the requisite Cool Jazz/Be Bop playing in the background. There's a central bar, but the main spaces are dedicated to either intimate seating or larger group tables. An open kitchen finishes off the look.
The food is divided into a small bites (dim sum, tapas, whatever you like to call it) menu with about 20 items and a more traditional full menu. The small bites menu is asian fusion while the full menu is merely asian inflected. My friend and I sat at the bar and had a few small bites - shrimp gyoza, duck spring rolls and the (in Holland anyway) requisite spare ribs. The food was delicious with its balanced flavoring and interesting accents, freshly prepared and sparely but pleasantly presented.
The cocktails, on the other hand, were disappointing. Not bad, just not what one hopes for at a self-proclaimed cocktail bar. They certainly had a good selection of liquors and an outstanding selection of mixers to complement them, but I'm afraid that, at least when we were there, attention to detail was lacking. For example, the bartender did not chill my glass before pouring my martini into it, then a few minutes later lost an ice cube from a drink he was mixing and didn't notice it sitting on the bar melting all over the menu I had been reading. The drinks themselves were adequate but lacked that extra bit of attention to detail a mature cocktail bar offers. There were a few other problems such as when our bartender suggested a couple of dishes and put the order in before we, um, actually ordered it. Granted, it was Sunday evening, and slow, and otherwise the front of the house looked well run, so perhaps this was just an off night for our bartender.
But I'm confident the Gin Sum Club will work these problems out (again, if they are actually problems and not just an off night for one dude). I really hope this place does well despite what must be their astronomically high rent; having a high end cocktail bar with a versatile menu has been one of the few types of place Haarlem has long missed. It remains to be seen if Haarlem and the surrounding neighborhoods are willing to support such a business. I'll certainly be back to give t hem another try and hopefully add a start or two to this review.
In short: the back of the house is already humming along, and the front of the house will likely follow; it's a high end destination great for business meetings, date nights with the wife and/or expensive mistresses or a place to impress expat friends. read more
