Court upholds licence for Amsterdam TikTok sensation Fabel Friet

Amsterdam city council was entitled to extend the licence for a chip shop whose long queues have been blamed by local residents for damaging the quality of life in the city centre neighbourhood, a court has ruled.

A judge said campaigners had failed to show that the problems were solely or mainly caused by customers of Fabel Friet, which has become a magnet for tourists drawn by the social media platform TikTok.

The decision is a setback for locals who wanted the court to overturn an extension to Fabel Friet’s licence, which was granted by the city council in 2024. The court was not asked to rule on the current licence issued this year.

They said the queues at the outlet in Runstraat, stretching back to the canal bridge, added to problems with overcrowding in the Negen Straatjes district  and attracted seagulls to the area.

“The number of places where they can sit and eat their chips without causing a nuisance is quite limited,” resident Niek van der Heijden told the court at an earlier hearing.

But judges said Fabel Friet was not primarily responsible for the queues and litter problems and the licence was granted correctly.

Exotic toppings

“Other catering outlets in the neighbourhood also attract large numbers of visitors and have queues,” the court said in a press release.

“The court concludes that it cannot be assumed that the problems experiences are solely or primarliy caused by customers of Fabel Friet. The neighbouring residents have not demonstrated this.”

Fabel Friet’s founders, Abel Klatzer and Floris Feilzer, have opened four other branches in the city centre since they launched the business in 2020, but the outlet in Runstraat remains their flagship.

Tourists flocked to the shop after their videos of their fries topped with exotic toppings such as Parmesan cheese and truffle mayonnaise were widely shared on TikTok.

The owners set up a special queueing system and hired extra security to try to keep order in the neighbourhood. At one stage they also employed a falconer to keep away the seagulls that ripped open the rubbish bags outside the shop and spilled the contents all over the street.