In Amsterdam you may soon be able to dine in a private greenhouse

Pictures of a proposal from a Dutch restaurant to go out to eat safely during the COVID-19 pandemic have gone viral on social media and the tables are fully booked until July.

Safer waterside dining soon for Amsterdammers

One establishment has plans to allow people to dine out in personalised pods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Art gallery and restaurant Mediamatic hopes to win approval to organise fine dining in small greenhouses overlooking the water. Photographs showing a testing session for the pods quickly went viral on social media. However, the pods are not yet publicly available as a dining option. This is just one restaurant’s proposed solution to the challenge of social distancing, and despite tables being booked out until the end of June, the scheme has yet to be approved by city officials.

Mediamatic is hopes to offer dinner in individual waterside greenhouses

In early May 2020, a photograph began to circulate on social media along with the claim that restaurants in the Netherlands had solved the problem of dining out during the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic by installing personal dining booths.

We found that image and more, and while these are genuine photographs from a real restaurant in the Netherlands, it should be noted that they were often shared on social media with incomplete or untrue information.

As fact-checking website Snopes was quick to point out, these photographs do not show a restaurant adhering to any new guidelines implemented by the Netherlands government. The images were taken at Mediamatic, an art gallery and restaurant in Amsterdam, as they tested out a proposed dining solution for when the restaurant was allowed to reopen again. 

Mediamatic explains on its website that these “quarantine greenhouses” would allow for two people to dine together. The restaurant notes that these dining pods would only be recommended for people who were already living together and that this dining plan was not approved yet by the government. 

While Mediamatic is taking reservations for when social distancing guidelines are expected to be relaxed, they note that these reservations may end up being cancelled (with full refund) if the plans are not approved. 

Serres Séparées will be an intimate dinner experience at Amsterdam’s Oosterdok if given the go ahead

“In these times we are reinspired by contamination precautions and the redesign of togetherness. Our greenhouses protect you from the outside and others while offering you a unique experience of intimate dining,” states the Mediamatic’s website. 

“In restaurants and bars, a separate room is traditionally named in French: “chambre séparée". It suggests a sexy kind of intimacy, here things can happen that should remain hidden from plain sight and not be heard by all. We’ve decided to name our greenhouses in French too. Although what happens inside will be a lot more public…”

The website invites you to enjoy a plant-based 4-course menu in their quarantine greenhouses. Book your own greenhouse by choosing a date and a time slot, from 18:00 – 20:30 or from 20:30 – 23:00. For now, they only offer a two-person ticket. But if you want to take an extra person, then they will charge €40 at the door. In case you want a unique experience by yourself, they will give you a €40 discount at the door. 

This of course is entirely dependent on them obtaining permission from local and national authorities.

Photos were taken at Mediamatic ETEN in Biotoop Dijkspark during testing on April 27, 2020. Scroll down for galley.

All images: Willem Velthoven With: Giulia Soldati, Tommaso Buresti, Jans Possel, Annelies Doom, Annelies Wina Doom, Papa Adama, Branko Kleynen, Anne Hofstra