Marnixstraat 192

Abraham Kef has been an institution in Amsterdam for nearly seventy years. Since 1953, the original shop, our mothership, has been located on the Marnixstraat. The owner, Marike van der Werff, shares some words about the store and how she ended up being the owner of fromagerie Kef:

‘The building has always served as a dairy shop. The Lijnbaansgracht canal which passes in front of the shop used to be a supply channel for vegetables and dairy coming from outside the city. The basements of the houses were used to store fresh products. Before starting to sell French cheeses, Abraham Kef also worked with Dutch dairy products at the same location. After a trip to France to help his brother make and sell cheese, Abraham Kef decided to introduce the French cheese culture to Amsterdam. This was the post-war period where many people had never left the country and never encountered these exotic products before. In black and white photos that I have found you can see him with a beret, an apron on, and a glass of wine in hand. Kef has since become a household name in the capital. Artists, politicians … everyone got their cheese from Kef.

For me, it all began in 2004 when I started my own catering company. I was looking for a kitchen where I could prepare my dishes. By pure coincidence, I ended at the back of a store I had never heard of before (not being from Amsterdam originally). That is how I moved into Abraham Kef. First in the very small kitchen upstairs. One morning, the then owner of the shop asked me if I was interested in minding the shop while he was away on a short holiday. The rest is history…’

Marnixstraat 192
1016 TJ Amsterdam
Telephone: 020 – 420 0097
E-mail: info@abrahamkef.nl