If you’re gonna do just one thing, get it right or risk failure. Fortunately for Mook – an American-style pancake restaurant in the west of Amsterdam – they have nothing to worry about there.

Serving nothing but pancakes and breakfast staples pays dividends, because they understand that no one in their right mind likes to have too much choice. So sweet, savoury, healthy and hearty is basically all that you need to decide between in this fast-moving brunch spot in the Jordaan.

Mook’s leafy interior (and a side of bacon)

And kudos for that as no other restaurant in Amsterdam has had the foresight to go ‘full pancake’ (of the American variety anyway) and there’s sure as hell no shortage of people who crave a stack of fluffy carbohydrate of a weekend.

Now, as is the norm with these kinds of places, don’t expect a booking facility. The light, leafy restaurant only accepts walk-ins so get there before noon on a weekend unless you fancy queuing out of the door and down the block.

We arrived at noon and by 1pm we’d finished eating, paid up, and were back out on the street, leaving our still-warm seats free for the next set of hungry pancake pilgrims. When we passed back an hour later (from basking in the sun over another coffee st Bilder & deClerq a few doors down) the queue was spilling out of the door and halfway down the block.

‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ is one of those expressions we throw around to show that while there’s no harm in spreading your skills around, it’ll be at the expense of true greatness in one thing. Being a ‘Jack’ isn’t an indictment, but it is a reminder that there are two sides to the coin when it comes to how we apply our energy.

Some other ‘master-of-one’ places that spring to mind include The Avocado Show, another brunch spot which really needs no other description (but perhaps some validation that you did indeed read that right) and Van Stepele, a bakery that specialises in producing one kind of chocolate cookie that’s baked in small enough batches to ensure that they’re always warm at the moment of purchase.

We’ve written about Van Stapele and you can read what we think of it here (spoiler alert: we think it’s amazing).

Fun fact: Mook’s single-minded mission was made reality thanks to crowdfunding and a return on investment for those who provided collateral, so there’s a number of pancake pioneers out there behind the endeavour. And at the time of writing, the founders of Mook are readying their second location at Joodenbreestraat, close to Waterlooplein in the city centre.

Niche is very now, and it pays dividends..

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