Vaste klant

Vaste klant is a bronze sculpture in Amsterdam, showing an elderly man on a bench beside a cat. Both figures sit outside the café now called Festina Lente. Albert Zweep created the scene from the café life he knew as a regular visitor. The figure represents a typical regular customer at the café.

An unpaid café tab led the owner to request a sculpture instead of cash. Zweep first made the sculpture in polyester. Repeated vandalism eventually led to a bronze version, installed outside the café in summer 1997. Zweep shaped the replacement model in clay. Heineken financed the bronze casting through an agreement with the café owner.

Simon Carmiggelt’s stories about Amsterdam café life inspired the man’s melancholy expression. The figure represents a widower from the café. The resident cat supplied the model for the animal’s relaxed pose. Visitors have used the statue to dry a wet towel.