From Underground to Rooftop! The Bulldog coffee shop empire.
One of the most legendary of the coffee sites in the coffee shop capital of the world is the Bull Dog. First found in Amsterdam red light area. The Bull Dog got its name in 1975 when Henk de Vries had to get rid of his fathers sex shop contents skiing them into the canal. Making place for his new venture. It was named after his dog Jorris, a bull dog!
He turned the house into the first successful modern day coffee shop. It was quite another time then and Henk and many of his customers where arrested hundreds of times a literal. The police station was a second home to some of them and as the battle for legalization, went so did the bull dog. Many years later when the then wee police station they visited so many time back …hey went up for sale….they purchase it and transformed into another bull dog. Today, the business is over 5 shops, a hotel, a presence in Canada and licenced merchandise line.
