The initiators behind the Lloyd Hotel
Four specialists with no previous hotel experience
In 1996 Amsterdam’s City Council initiated a competition to find a designation for the rapidly crumbling Lloyd Hotel building. The Council was keen to turn the building into a hotel once again, but would also like it to fulfil a local need for the community, preferably a cultural one. Oxenaar and Nan submitted a plan to turn it into a hotel cum cultural embassy. Out of the plans submitted by the twelve teams that took part in the competition, theirs was chosen. Liesbeth Mijnlieff and Gerrit Groen were delighted to join in the adventure.
Gerrit Groen
Is a lawyer and a tax specialist and also teaches at Amsterdam University. As the chairman of the Board of the Amsterdam Artists Initiative W139 he has an intimate knowledge of the latest developments in the art world. Groen and Mijnlieff met in the kitchen at Café Cox.
Groen is external advisor to the Lloyd Hotel. Groen said, on ‘his’ Lloyd Hotel: “The Lloyd Hotel is open day and night: hopefully that in itself will make it a lively place that will add to the international metropolitan atmosphere of Amsterdam.’
Liesbeth Mijnlieff
Was introduced to French cuisine by her father very early on in her life. After studying medicine she attended the Cordon Bleu cookery school in Paris. In the nineties she launched the kitchens of Café Kapitein Zeppos and Café Cox, among others. She set up her own dream restaurant, Mijnlieff, and co-owned café restaurant Amsterdam and the fish restaurant Werkendam. In between times she gave cookery lessons, and she is currently writing a cookery book to be published on DVD. At the Lloyd Hotel, Mijnlieff’s watchful eye oversees both the fast and slow restaurant. Mijnlieff, on ‘her’ Lloyd Hotel: “In the Lloyd Hotel you can get a snack or a sumptuous meal at any time of the day or night, and key concepts such as ‘quality produce’, ‘simple’ and ‘like your grandmother used to make it’ characterize the kitchen, and make all the difference on your plate.”
Otto Nan
Studied Art History and was co-organiser of parties and exhibitions in the Amsterdam arts and clubbing scenes in the nineties. Among them was the ‘cultural theme park’ Vrieshuis Amerika, where an entire village was built in the great hall on the third floor, for staging art exhibitions as well as underground raves. A self-taught financial whiz kid he designed the business plan for the Lloyd Hotel. In his capacity of General Manager he is responsible for the daily running of the Hotel. Nan on ‘his’ Lloyd Hotel: “Luxury is our standard, economy is an option.”
Suzanne Oxenaar
In her capacity of advisor to the Praktijkbureau of the Mondriaan Foundation (SKOR) she organised large scale art commissions for public spaces. In addition, she organised exhibitions such as BRAIN (Gorinchem, NL, 1992) , EXCHANGE/ MOSKOU (Moscow, 1993), EXCHANGE/ DATSJA (Almere, NL, 1994-‘95) and she was co-founder of the Supper Club restaurant in Amsterdam. Currently she is curator of “The Fifth Season”, a living space for artists in residence at the psychiatric institution Willem Arntszhoeve in Den Dolder. At the Lloyd Hotel, Oxenaar is responsible, among other things, for the running of the Cultural Embassy. Oxenaar on ‘her’ Lloyd Hotel: “It is an adventure, and it should remain an adventure.”
