De Nieuwe Anita is Amsterdam's favourite living-room venue — a tiny, idiosyncratic space on Frederik Hendrikstraat in Oud-West that has built an outsized reputation over two decades of genuinely independent programming. There's a bar on the ground floor that opens early and closes late. Upstairs is a small performance space for gigs, readings, and the occasional very intimate club night. In the cellar, Monday film nights have run to a devoted crowd for years.

The booking policy is driven by personal taste rather than commercial logic — which is why the same room hosts folk, jazz, experimental noise, spoken word, and Dutch cabaret in the same week without it feeling incoherent. The venue is named after Anita, a legendary Amsterdam bar owner, and carries that spirit: warm, particular, and uninterested in being fashionable.

Capacity is genuinely small — under a hundred standing for gigs. If you're going for a specific event, arrive early. The bar is always worth stopping by regardless of what's on: good beer selection, regulars who know each other, a neighbourhood atmosphere that's become rarer in Amsterdam as rents have risen.