Hamelandroute 92

Drivers’ café at Heurne border faces closure

AALTEN — The unloading of a heating system and the departure of the operator of a roadside restaurant have triggered an avalanche of rumours at the Heurne border. At least one of them is correct: De Kapelle will soon no longer be operated in its present form. Mr Jean-Pierre, as the operator is known at the border, is leaving for abroad, either Italy or France, and says the restaurant’s future is uncertain.

The operating company that runs the business has not renewed its contract with the owner, Mr D. Fries, a tobacconist in Aalten, according to people at De Kapelle. Mr Fries is rather surprised by this. “Officially I know nothing about it. I do not even know that someone else is supposed to be taking over. I know nothing about a contract not being renewed,” he says. The company operating hotels, cafés and restaurants, which can be contacted through a brewery in Rotterdam, is reluctant to provide information. The man whom Mr Fries assumes to be fully informed says he knows nothing, while another person who supposedly does know will still be away on holiday for the next few weeks.

Buyer

At De Kapelle they are certain that the brewery does not want to renew its agreement with the owner. It is assumed that there will then be little option but to close this drivers’ café and roadside restaurant. “A buyer came along a fortnight ago because of the rumours, but I did no business with him. I know nothing about any changes,” says Mr Fries. Around De Kapelle the rumours are that a brewery is interested, that there will be major alterations and that the business will have two wings: one for lorry drivers and one for serving extensive meals and hosting functions.

The director of the brewery said to be interested, Mr F. Groen of Groenlo, says: “There is no question of alterations. They told me that story at the border as well when I went on holiday. I do have a note about it on my desk and I shall look into it, but at present I know nothing about it.” Mr Groen thinks it quite likely that another brewery is no longer interested. “Their experiences there have not exactly been very cheerful,” he says.

Weighing up everything that is and is not being said about the matter, it can safely be assumed at present that from the beginning of the new year there will no longer be a stopping place in Heurne, something many drivers on long-distance routes will greatly regret.

Whether a customs clearance office will be established in De Kapelle is another question whose answer remains up in the air. Such an office already stands on the other side of the road, and because a heating system has been delivered to the customs office, speculation about changes there is also rife.

Plans for a new border customs office have existed for a long time. It should already have been completed last month, but work has not even begun. Nor is it likely to happen for the time being. At the customs office in Winterswijk, the view is that now a decision has been made to spend thousands of guilders refurbishing the existing office and installing gas heating, it is virtually certain that a new customs office will not be built in the near future.

The drivers on international routes are, in any case, far more concerned about whether their stopping place is going to close. They had increasingly begun to feel at home there. “They got it wrong here in the past,” one of them says. “They wanted to turn it into a restaurant with nice tablecloths and fairly high prices. A roadside place has to be cheap. For a driver it matters whether he gets one cup of coffee or two for his guilder.”

“It is difficult to keep running a business with that prospect hanging over you,” restaurant experts say. “But places like this are nevertheless essential at the border,” customs officers believe.