Café Bizon was one of the very first bars in the centre of Brussels I frequented, even before I lived there. The reasons were simple: great — often live — blues music, cool and quirky interior, multilingual staff, and Guinness on draught. Even then I didn’t like lager, so the stout was a welcome alternative, and so the Guinness was my drink of choice. It’s still there — always served with the Irish shamrock drawn in the foam — but the beer list is actually a lot more interesting than that!
There are four beer pumps at Café Bizon. Apart from the Guinness and a lager — Bockor – two trappist beers are available on draught: the Chimay Blanche tripel — quite easily found on draught in Brussels — and the Dutch La Trappe Witte Trappist as their witbier — which is a bit rarer here. All other main beers of both trappist abbeys are on the bottle list, as are some beers the other Belgian trappist abbeys: Achel, Rochefort, Orval, Westmalle and Westvleteren.
Then there are some rather interesting lambic beers by Cantillon, Girardin, Boon, Oud Beersel and Hanssens, and if you’re pining for some hops, Taras Boulba and Zinnebir are available as well.
The days of the famous Bizon spaghetti are long gone, unfortunately, and there isn’t really anything to replace it: just crisps, sausages and cheese. If you’re lucky, there is some salty popcorn on the bar. There’s a huge potential for beer and popcorn pairing, by the way, see for instance what BrewDog did in collaboration with Joe & Seph’s Popcorn!
However, there’s another ‘b’ available here, that more than makes up for the lack of proper bites: blues! Every Monday there’s a quite informal Bizon Blues Jam Session, usually hosted by a slightly better-known name in the Brussels or international blues world, and every Wednesday there’s an acoustic concert.
The importance of music here is very apparent as well when you have a look at the ceiling: it’s full of concert tickets of people who stuck it there when coming to the bar, after having enjoyed a concert in the Ancienne Belgique or elsewhere.
Whether you play an instrument — don’t forget to bring it along — or not, Café Bizon is the perfect bar for blues lovers who don’t want the beer options to give them the blues!
tl;dr
Beers
- 4 beers on draught
- Really nice bottle list, with many trappist beers and lambic beers
Bites
- Sausage, cheese and crisps
- Free salty popcorn!
Café Bizon
Karperbrug 7 Rue du Pont de la Carpe
1000 Brussel
+32 2 502 46 99
http://www.cafebizon.com
cafebizon
What have people been drinking here recently?
- Jari Van Lint is drinking an Oude Geuze Devillé à l'ancienne at Café Bizon
- Hendrik De Pril is drinking a Bersalis Tripel at Café Bizon
- Duarte Matos is drinking a Zinnebir at Café Bizon
- Zineb is drinking a Cuvée Devillé at Café Bizon
- Benjamin is drinking a Surréaliste at Café Bizon
- Chang Sung Ok is drinking a Zinnebir at Café Bizon
- Thyago Lopes is drinking a Westmalle Trappist Tripel at Café Bizon
- JP Z is drinking a Trappistes Rochefort 10 at Café Bizon
- Stef Vanderoost is drinking a SUPER 8 Flandrien at Café Bizon
- mantas_tamuleviius is drinking a La Trappe Blond at Café Bizon