Last year I posted in the Trail of the Wildmen series about the apparent Wildman motto: “the way must be tried.” In the post I outlined how a beer company – Flying Dog Brewery – used this motto in a TV commercial, with a portrayal of a “wild man”, to help promote a new beer “Wildeman”. Unfortunately, this particularly beer has been cancelled, but it did lead me to another beer connection.

Whilst searching online I came across a “beer cafe” situated in Amsterdam in the Netherlands called “In De Wildeman”. It has been called:

a mandatory stop for any beer geek visiting Amsterdam. It is a superbly specialized place…

This pub has been in operation for three decades in what appears to be a fantastically located and decorated building. On reading about it my memory was jogged to a photograph that I was sent more than a decade ago; my wife’s Australian cousins visited Amsterdam and took a photo of a sign that linked with my surname. And what was the sign advertising? Yep, you got it: “In De Wildeman”!

As for the reasons for the name of this establishment, there is little doubt that is named after the Wild Man legend (which I outlined in a previous post from last year), and so it is unlikely that there is a direct family link. However, it is interesting to see just how wide the link with the surname stretches, and particularly nice for me personally to connect the decade old photograph with a specific location.