This week on OverProof, I sit down with Timo Janse — founder of Dutch Courage Cocktail Bar in Amsterdam, creator of the Perfect Serve Bar Show, organiser of Amsterdam Cocktail Week, and the man who used his bar opening savings to build a national bar show instead because nobody else was going to do it.

Timo's path into hospitality started as a side job while studying economics — a dive bar on weekends, then a boutique hotel bar where he showed up as a temp and ended up managing the place within weeks. From there, nearly a decade behind the stick at Door 74, Amsterdam's legendary speakeasy, before finally getting the keys to his own venue — two weeks before COVID hit.

He talks about what it took to actually open Dutch Courage: the false starts, the asbestos ceiling nobody mentioned until they were ready to sign, the banks that wouldn't touch him until he'd already survived five years without them, and the insurance broker who told him not to bother thinking about a pension. He also gets into what it looked like to run three bars, split from a business partner the right way, and come out the other side with one venue, more clarity, and a sign on his wall that says nobody's ever gotten smarter from a meeting.

And there's a guest shift story. I won't ruin it. Just know it involves a cucumber, a three-floor bar where every single staff member was on their first day, and Timo having to be physically dragged out at the end of his shift.