Strandrestaurant Werelds

It's a crowded breakfast at the beach today. My partner, as well as Billie Stormzy's big sister and a friend of hers have joined us. We've all cycled together to the far end of the Scheveningen Boulevard, where we'll visit the last beach club at this stretch, before crossing over to the northern beaches (possibly returning a few times for those beach clubs that only open for lunch and dinner). That's Strandrestaurant Werelds. At first, I have some difficulty spotting it. It's partly hidden from the view by a sandwich stand and Soulsistah - a concept restaurant that has been about to open for almost a year now in the modern building originally meant for the Hard Rock Café, but of which the doors still remain closed. It also blends in almost seamlessly with next door Atlantis and only after a closer look I realise that Werelds' parasols are a slightly darker shade of blue.

We walk to that part of the terrace that's on the beach and as soon as we've found a place that offers both shade and sun, the girls are off. My partner tells them that instead of going to another beach club, as they intend, they could go to the little playground in front of Werelds. This, they do, after letting me know that they want an apple juice and an orange juice. Billie Stormzy, meanwhile, has managed to balance himself precariously on the armrest of the couch on which I'm sitting. He finds it hilarious that we look concerned everytime he almost drops backwards, and pushes my arm away everytime I try to hold on to him. Finally, I manage to put my arm slightly behind him without him noticing, while he laughs everytime he almost looses his balance. 

Then he follows his sister and her friend to the playground, and my partner and I decide to move to a place close to the playground too. After quite a while, our order still has not been taken. In fact, there's not a waiter in sight, which also explains the sign asking for employees we saw when entering the beach club. I walk to the bar, but there's no-one there either, except for a few other customers trying to get their order taken. After a while, a bartender appears asking whether he can help me. I tell him I'd like my order to be taken and then a waitress pops up as well and walks with me to our place. 

My partner takes a latte macchiato and apple pie. There's a set breakfast at Werelds, but from the look of it, it will be pretty much the same as what I've been eating for the past few weeks at the neighbouring beach clubs, so instead I go for something I haven't seen before: "egg Hemingway", which promises a poached egg, slices of bread, salmon and "Hollandaise sauce". Soon afterwards, our drinks are brought, together with the apple pie. The girls drink their juices and his sister kindly shares her orange juice with Billie Stormzy by letting him drink from her straw. That's not enough for him, however, and he wants to hold the glass as well. This goes fine for a while, but then he spills most of it over the couch and me. The whole situation is a bit of a catch 22: if I'd taken the glass from him before, there'd have been much shouting and whining, but when I don't take the glass, something like this is very likely to happen. I shrug it off as something that too, will pass and accept that I won't get a prize for my parenting skills today. 

The three of them return to the playground and amuse themselves with its slide and slings - the girls take good care of Billie Stormzy and he seems to take their help for granted. It's sunny and warm, Werelds plays the most melancholic type of dream pop imaginable - all girl singers expressing sad longing over slow hip hop beats and piano and guitar chords full of reverb. Together with the sun-drenched beach and the waves of the sea behind that, it gives this morning a lazy, nostalgic feel, almost as if we're living inside a faded postcard from a summer spent at a beachside resort many years ago.

My egg Hemingway is brought and I have to admit: it's a triumph. The poached egg is done immaculately, the greasy taste of salmon in balanced out nicely with leek, and the Hollandaise sauce is a bit much qua taste, but thankfully spread over the whole thing with moderation. The bread is tasty, too. Billie Stormzy is even more enthusiastic as I am when the food is brought: "Eat!" he shouts and immediately claims a large part of the poached egg, as well as bits of bread, preferring the brown over the white bread. His sister, meanwhile, has decided she wants to eat something too, but we have to choose carefully because her friend is lactose intolerant. I ask her whether she can have yoghurt, as I know some lactose intolerants can, and she tells me a bit if fine. I then instruct them to find the waitress and check with her whether she can eat the banana bread, which comes with yoghurt and honey. They're off and I continue my breakfast. 

After that, I sip my mint tea. Billie Stormzy is running around, followed by my partner. The girls return and lay down, playing with the sand. The waitress walks by again and asks if all is fine - I check whether the girls indeed managed to order the banana bread, and she confirms. Billie Stormzy's sister says she wants another orange juice to make up for the one her brother spilled and I order that too - then her friend orders an apple juice without checking with me. The waitress glances at me and I nod - very well, another apple juice, then. 

Soon everything is brought and the girls enjoy their second breakfast that day. Early this morning I made them banana pancakes, which I often do on weekend days and by using oatmilk instead of regular milk, that can easily be made suitable for a lactose intoleant. Before having her banana bread, my daugher eats the mint leaves from my tea - a habit she's picked up in Tunisia and never dropped since. We agree that when the girls have finished their drinks and food, we'll go to the sea to swim. Well, they'll swim, for me it's too cold. 

When we're all done, I ask the waitress for our bill and pay. With Billie Stormzy's one hand in mine, and his other in his mother's, we walk to the sea  and I notice that the beach is already very crowded.

Also on Breakfast at the Beach: Jump back in time to when I visited this place with Rihanna Gaga in 2017