Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Rein Feenstra owns one of the most unique eateries on the mountain: the Dutch Bite Café, with such a fascinating niche that it draws business from further than anyone could expect. Today he shares that truth, along with a few interesting others.
by Kyle Hitchmough
What was the inspiration for you to open Dutch Bite Café here on the mountain?
Because we’re Dutch! When we bought the building we turned it into a Dutch-style house. People love it. We fell in love with the property when we saw it, made an offer and that was it. Suddenly we had a café. First my daughter ran it with different kinds of food, then when she stopped, we took it over made it only Dutch.
Are there any other ways you bring Dutch culture into the experience here?
Yes, we play Dutch music… plus a Dutch shop where we sell Dutch groceries and souvenirs as well as clogs. Wooden clogs are very Dutch, so we set up the shop to add on to the whole experience for people coming to have breakfast and lunch, so they can do some shopping.
What’s your most popular dish that you serve?
Kroketten with chips. It’s sort of our signature dish. It’s very simple. It’s a deep-fried ragout (well-seasoned meat/fish/vegetables), covered in breadcrumbs. The frikandels are very special, too. That’s a beef sausage with no skin, and then we cut it in half, put in onions and curry sauce and mayo. It’s very Dutch.
Are there any particular trends in your clientele?
80% of them are Dutch. They travel up from Brisbane, Burleigh, even Coffs Harbour, just having learned about us. They come here just for us, they come regularly because there’s nothing else in Dutch cuisine here on the Gold Coast. We do get a lot of locals and Australians but they only order the burgers!
What do you think Dutch Bite Café brings to the area?
There’s nothing else like us. We’re the only one in the far Brisbane area where you can have specially made Dutch food. It brings more tourists up the mountain because they’re coming up here for us and then they spend more time on the mountain, spend some time on Gallery Walk. But there’s nowhere else you can buy the authentic clogs or the Dutch souvenirs, Dutch licorice…
Is the experience different for locals or Australian tourists who want to try the Dutch food here?
They still enjoy it. A lot of them don’t try the Dutch food— they just want the burgers. When we have Japanese or Chinese tourists in, they eat everything, but the Australians just see the burgers. That’s how they are, I suppose, you can’t change that! They should be more adventurous, though. A lot of them do have grandparents who are Dutch, and they’ll go in the shop and buy things, or try the Dutch food because it’s what their grandparents made. We have a lot of younger people coming in now.
Do you have any memorable stories from your time working here?
We used to have Dutch magazines here on the tables. In one of the magazines there was a big article about a family from the 40’s or 50’s. We had a customer who was sitting here, reading the magazine, and said ‘that’s my grandpa!’ It was amazing. There was a whole article about his grandparents that he did not know about.
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