Our story
Built bytravellers
Two brothers who slept in a lot of hostels, an empty building on the Bierkade canal, and a crowdfunding campaign. That is how The Golden Stork started in 2017. Today it is the living room on the canal, for travellers and for Den Haag.
01How it started
Nine years on one canal, and still building.
An empty building and a plan
Dennis and his brother Marcel had travelled a lot and always wanted something of their own. With money from a crowdfunding campaign they turned an empty building on the Bierkade into a hostel, mostly with their own hands.
A kitchen, then a pandemic
We opened a kitchen. Then travel stopped almost overnight. A lot of places did not make it through. We did.
The terrace on the canal
The big terrace on the water came in. After the quiet years, travellers and people from Den Haag started ending up at the same tables.
Building it back up
We scaled the kitchen back to what a place our size does well, and now we are growing again: specialty coffee in the morning, more on the menu at lunch, low-key nights. And the rooms, one by one.
When you visit Den Haag, we want you to experience Den Haag. That is why we work with local makers, and why our bar is full of people who live here.
Our rooms are small. They have the basics and we keep them that way on purpose. Our energy goes into the social side of the hostel, not into designer rooms.
02How we run it
Four things we hold on to, whatever else changes.
Den Haag on the table
We buy from makers down the road, not from a catalogue.
- Kompaan beer
- Brood van Bro bread
- Roast Factory coffee
Made from what was there
We look at materials before we buy new ones. When we built the place, we reused what we pulled out of it.
Our bar is made from the beams we took out of the bathroom.Small rooms, big living room
We would rather tell you our rooms are small and our dorms have no windows than have you find out at check-in. Where we go big is the bar, the terrace and the people in it.
Room for creatives
Musicians, makers, people with an idea for a night: we give them the front of the house. Not everything has to make money, as long as it is good fun.
Pitch your idea03A day on the canal
Open to everyone, guest or not.
Coffee first
Specialty coffee, roasted locally by Roast Factory, and a seat at the bar, or out on the terrace in season.
The bar
Lunch and laptops
Toasties and homemade pão de queijo, with more on the way. Power at every seat, and nobody hurries you out.
Work from the bar
Low-key nights
Crafts, board games, trivia and an open stage. A Kompaan, a table of strangers, and usually a few regulars.
See this weekCome for a coffee.
Stay the night.
Book direct and your first drink at the bar is on us.