Exploring De Waag in Doesburg: A Historic Dutch Bar & Restaurant

While we visited Doesburg we didn’t eat in De Waag as it was quite crowded. But in the afternoon, before leaving Doesburg we did stop for a drink. We sat inside because we wanted to look at the interior of the old building. Their site claims this is the oldest restaurant of The Netherlands. The interior still has old furniture and other elements like a balans that was used to weigh goods. Apparently, you could also ask to have yourself weighed to prove that you weren’t a witch to prevent prosecution. Luckily such literal witch hunts are a thing of the past in The Netherlands and you can focus on other things in De Waag like the 12 different beers they have on tap for example. We didn’t have time to sample them all but glancing over the menu I saw they had Duvel on tap. Not a local beer but not very common to find it on tap so I went for it. They served Duvel in the classical Duvel shaped glass but of a smaller size than normal, I guess 25cc instead of 33cc which is the norm. This was actually fine as I still had to survive the rest of the afternoon without getting tipsy. For such an old establishment it didn’t deliver something exceptional in terms of atmosphere. But it is a unique interior, staff is friendly and fast and there is lots of choice so also no reason not to have a drink there.