All events

Café Saarein

Elandsstraat 119-HS
Amsterdam
website

Monday Closed
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 4pm–1am
Thursday 4pm–1am
Friday 4pm–2am
Saturday 4pm–2am
Sunday 4–1am

Pooltable inside, enjoy a game of killer pool. 

Upcoming events in Café Saarein

  1. Queer Enough: Documentary film night

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Queer Enough: Documentary film night

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    In this short documentary, three queer individuals explore their internalized biases about being queer in absurdist scenes inspired by “expectation vs. reality” memes. Behind the scenes, they discuss marginalization and misconceptions within queer spaces with fellow other participants.

    This movienight is sponsored by de Trut Fonds ❤️

Past events in Café Saarein

  1. Book club: A New Spelling of My Name (1982)

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Book club: A New Spelling of My Name (1982)

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Book Club: Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982)
    Together with Tieneke Sumter, we will discuss the importance of literature, historical consciousness, and how the past continues to shape the present—while thinking collectively about how to work toward a different future. Sign up by sending an email to saareinevenementen@gmail.com

  2. Art Bar SEXYLAND #28

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Art Bar SEXYLAND #28

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Op 25 februari zijn we weer terug met Art Bar SEXYLAND #28, met Rineke Dijkstra.
    Deze keer landen we in een bruine kroeg met sterke activistische waarden: Café Saarein. 🍸

    Sinds de vroege jaren negentig heeft Rineke Dijkstra een indrukwekkend oeuvre opgebouwd van foto- en videokunst waarin ze op een eigentijdse manier werkt met het genre portretkunst. 📸 Door mensen te isoleren uit hun dagelijkse omgeving en te focussen op subtiele details, de houding en de blik van de geportretteerde, spoort ze de toeschouwer aan om goed te kijken naar mensen die vaak op de een of andere manier in transitie zijn. Steeds ligt in Dijkstra’s portretten de nadruk op de poses en de blik, en zo laat ze op een onnadrukkelijke manier zien hoe veelkantig ieder individu kan zijn.
    Rineke Dijkstra is internationaal erkend; haar werk maakt deel uit van toonaangevende museumcollecties wereldwijd. ✨

    Amsterdam mag zich gelukkig prijzen met Café Saarein, een bruine kroeg met sterke activistische waardes die sinds 1978 functioneert als zichtbare ontmoetingsplek en veilige haven voor vrouwen, feministen en queer personen. Het café brengt mensen met diverse seksualiteiten, genders en denkbeelden samen; Solidariteit met een stevige biertje. 🍻
    ’s Avonds bruist het café van vaste gasten, nieuwe vlammen en iconische barkeepers achter de bar. En alsof dat nog niet genoeg is, woedt in het souterrain al decennia een intense competitie rond de pooltafel.
    Je kunt wel zeggen dat deze parel in de Jordaan een stuk cultureel erfgoed is. Mede om deze reden is anderhalf jaar geleden is het café ondergebracht in Stichting Saarein, met als doel de rijke geschiedenis en maatschappelijke betekenis van Saarein te beschermen en uit te dragen. 🏳️‍🌈

    Art Bar SEXYLAND is het maandelijkse wisselende woensdagcafé voor als je vastzit in je ideeën: praat over kunst of laat je werk zien aan een gerenommeerde kunstenaar of curator — die deze avond gewoon achter de bar staat. Bad bartenders, great ideas. 💡

  3. Film Screening: The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Film Screening: The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Film Screening: On Audre Lorde’s birthday, we’re watching:
    Audre Lorde - The Berlin Hears 1984 to 1992

    Free entrance, be in time to secure a spot

  10. Potluck christmas dinner

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Potluck christmas dinner

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Dears❤️ Christmas is on its way, fun for some, not for all. Those days can be lonely times, especially for us queers. That’s why we’d like to celebrate it together! Join us on Wednesday the 24th for a Potluck Christmas dinner. Come alone, with your mate(s), your kid(s), your partner(s), your family(s), you are very welcome❤️

    Potluck: potluck is a communal gathering where each guest or group contributes a different, often homemade, dish or food to be shared.

    How it works:
    Send a mail to saareinevenementen@gmail.com to reserve(and for how many people), after you’ll get more information. We’re looking forward! 🫠❤️

  11. QUEER LESBIAN PUBQUIZ

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    QUEER LESBIAN PUBQUIZ

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Test je kennis, vier de community en maak kans op een vette prijs! 🏆

    🎟️ 5 euro, gratis welkomstdrankje

    🎤 De presentatie van deze winter pride Amsterdam editie is in handen van de doorgewinterde hosts @nutellaversacedrag en @dickeyheerkens , de bedenkers en makers van de Queer Lesbian Pubquiz. 🎭
    ❓Verheug je op vragen over queer lesbische cultuur, geschiedenis, actualiteit, muziek en meer.
    💰 Win €50 korting op je eindafrekening als jouw team de slimste blijkt te zijn!

    Verzamel je team (3 tot 5 personen), oefen je trivia skills en kom gezellig quizzen! 🌈

  12. Movie night - Tangerine

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Movie night - Tangerine

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Tangerine (2015) by Dir. Sean baker

    Tangerine is a comedy-drama that follows two sex-workers on Christmas eve as they comb the streets of Los Angeles in search of a cheating boyfriend. The film was shot entirely on iPhones, utilizing this cheap technology to create something strikingly cinematic.

  13. Movie night: Cabaret

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Movie night: Cabaret

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    This time at Queer Cinema Club, our bartenders will be serving drinks in full drag — and if you come in drag too, your first drink is on the house. ❤️

    Bartender Laura’s movie choice: Cabaret (1972), directed by Bob Fosse and starring Liza Minnelli, is a landmark musical-drama set in Berlin during the final years of the Weimar Republic, as Nazi influence rapidly spreads across Germany.
    Adapted from the stage musical, the film contrasts the glittering, hedonistic world of the Kit Kat Club with the growing political darkness outside. Through its striking performances and bold style, Cabaret captures both the allure of its era and the unsettling rise of fascism, securing its place as one of the most enduring and influential films in musical cinema.

    Free entrance! Be in time to secure a spot

  14. Movie night: Lesbian avengers eat fire too

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Movie night: Lesbian avengers eat fire too

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Pottenkijkers is teaming up with publisher Valiz and Cafe Saarein to organise a special screening of Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too (1993) - a film by Su Friedrich and Janet Baus. This documentary film gives a peek into the revolutionary activist group called the Lesbian Avengers. The group was known for their literal fire eating practice with which they tried to gain visibility.

    A manifesto by the Lesbian Avengers is featured in Valiz’s newest publication: Love and Lightning by Sarah van Binsbergen, Liz Allan, Jessica Gysel, Sara Kaaman (eds.)

    ‘Love & Lightning’ is an inconclusive, thematically ordered collection of queer, feminist, and queer-feminist manifestos. The 83 manifestos highlighted in this book cross borders, refuse binary logics, transcend our concepts of time and space and surpass the neoliberal logic.

    This anthology is published by Valiz and Girls Like Us Magazine. Valiz is an independent publisher from Amsterdam, Girls Like Us is a queer feminist publication platform in Brussels.

    Free entry, be in time to secure a spot!

  17. Bookclub: We Have Always Been Here

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Bookclub: We Have Always Been Here

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    BOOKCLUB: We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

    Send a mail to saareinevenementen@gmail.com to sign up.

    For our next book club, we will discuss the powerful memoir We Have Always Been Here by Pakistani-Canadian activist Samra Habib. We follow Samra from her childhood in Pakistan to her move to Canada, where she learns to navigate between different cultures, norms, and ways of life. The story is both a journey of building a life across cultures and a love story; of relationships, identity, and faith. Be more than welcome to join the conversation at Café Saarein.

  19. De MeeZing

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    De MeeZing

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Na mei 2024 is dit je kans om weer luidkeels mee te zingen in Amsterdam’s warmste queer café onder leiding van Irene Hemelaar! Tekstboekje krijg je, stemgeluid breng je zelf mee.

    🎶 Favoriete Nederlandstalige nummer? Mail naar irene@heavenlycreature.nl (voor 1 okt)

  20. Bookclub: The argonauts

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Bookclub: The argonauts

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    BOOKCLUB: THE ARGONAUTS, MAGGIE NELSON
    Wednesday 1st of October at 20:00, we gather to discuss the landmark book The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson. Ten years after its publication, it has become a modern classic on queer love, autotheory, and motherhood beyond the nuclear family. Blending love story, theory, and queer life, Nelson explores intimacy, transformation, and the possibilities of kinship in fearless and deeply personal ways.
    Join us for an evening of conversation, reflection, and thoughts about this work that continues to spark dialogue, challenge norms, and inspire queer thought.

    Send an email to saareinevenementen@gmail.com to join.

  21. Mina maandag

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Mina maandag

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    De volgende Mina Maandag in Amsterdam staat in teken van Wilhelmina Drucker en de verkiezingen. Er komt een gastspreker (wie dat is houden we nog even geheim) en er wordt natuurlijk geborreld! 🍻🍸🍹

    Iedereen is welkom, Dolle Mina’s, geïnteresseerden, vrienden, we zien jullie heel graag om 19.30u bij café Saarein in de Elandstraat!

  22. A Queer Gaze

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    A Queer Gaze

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    A photography book of Marian Bakker’s work is in the making, and to bring it to life a crowdfunding campaign has been launched. On August 27 we’ll celebrate Marian’s work at Café Saarein (a place she also documented extensively) with all kinds of activities to support the crowdfunding 🤍❣️part of the barprofit will go to the crowdfunding, so come cheer with us!

  24. Pub quiz

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Pub quiz

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    ack by popular demand! The second edition of our Pub Quiz at @cafesaarein, hosted by beloved quizmaster Rosie Anderson.

    All proceeds go to Stichting LGBT Asylum Support an NGO providing much needed support for LGBTI-refugees in the Netherlands throughout the asylum procedure.

    €5-15 entry per person, pay what you can (at the door).

  26. Roundtable talk: Hands of the Wallen

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Roundtable talk: Hands of the Wallen

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Coming Thursday we will gather to stand in solidarity with sex workers and oppose the construction of the Erotic Center that the municipality of Amsterdam plans to build.

    This project poses a serious threat to sex workers’ livelihoods by forcing relocation to a highly regulated building designed without meaningful consultation.

    We will begin with a roundtable discussion hosting the Prostitution Information Center (PIC) and Dinah Bons.

    After the discussion, we’ll collectively draft and submit public comments opposing the Erotic Center through the official platform launched by the Municipality. The Municipality is collecting comments until July 23.

    If possible bring your laptops for the second part.

  29. Screening Levante + Talk

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Screening Levante + Talk

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    Sunday the 22nd of June we have a screening of the movie @levante_filme and have an after talk with @samennaardekliniek about their important work in these times when abortion rights all of the world are under even more pressure!

  30. 1 year takeover Saarein

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    1 year takeover Saarein

    Café Saarein, Elandsstraat 119-HS, Amsterdam

    This Sunday, June 1st, it will be exactly one year since we took over Saarein and started running it as a foundation. We will celebrate this with cake and a toast at 17:00! because WHAT A YEAR.

    We are learning, celebrating, tapping. For, by and with you. Thank you for the trust, the wonderful evenings and the community. In these times, love and coming together are more important than ever. We love you, love, Saarein❣️