Remember that old jump-rope game? Now misspell it, and eat it!

If the dollar weren’t tanking, I’d be planning a European vacation right now. It would involve lengthy visits to Paris and Rome and perhaps a drive through the Alps, but my first stop would be Amsterdam. But in case you haven’t noticed, vacations have morphed into stay-cations this year, and everyone is using their time off to hang around at home. And everyone’s acting like they don’t really mind at all.

Fine. I’ll play along.

But even if I can’t have my lazy bike rides along the canals and art-filled visits to the Rijksmuseum and drawn-out afternoons relaxing in, er, coffee shops, I still want my salty cheese sandwiches and bracingly bitter licorice and soft chocolate candy. Good thing Dubbel Dutch, spitting distance from Regis University, is just a short car ride away.

The best of Dubbel Dutch’s array of sandwiches and panini is the Old Amsterdam cheese sandwich, a crusty baguette stuffed with Old Amsterdam cheese (a tangy-but-creamy aged gouda), tomatoes, cucumbers and butter. Also good, the “house favorite” smoked salmon sandwich with cream cheese, capers, lettuce and cucumber.

And here’s something that doesn’t often happen here (or in Amsterdam, for that matter): free chips.

Pick out a soda to down with your sandwich at the picnic table out front, but plan on returning to the counter afterwards for a latte, brewed with Douwe Egberts roast, a rich, muscular-but- soothing blend that’s deeper than Starbucks’ Pike Place, more chocolatey than Lavazza, more bitter (in a good way) than Dunkin’ Donuts’, and very good. Pair it with a cookie.

Also on offer, shelves of imported Dutch specialty groceries, including cheese (goudas, especially), Douwe Egberts coffee, De Ruiter snacks and cookies, some Indonesian goods, peppermint candies and a full range of bulk and prepackaged licorice.

And get this: Most of the grocery items are available for mail order. Hit orangepackage.com to send a squeeze tube of fritessaus (”french fry sauce with herbs in it”) or bosbessen siroop (black-currant syrup) to mix with club soda.

Is a visit to DubbelDutch better than a long weekend in Amsterdam? No. But your dollar will go a lot further. And in these days of stay-cations, that’s not for nothing.

DUBBEL DUTCH
Dutch grocer and sandwich shop. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. 4974 Lowell Blvd., Denver, 303-480-9100, dubbeldutchdenver.com.

– Tucker Shaw