Places where you can go for lunch or dinner, and enjoy a nice beer with it.
It has been a while since we’ve visited the very first smash burger restaurant in Brussels, and even Belgium… Many more have popped up since, but few qualified for our blog. The burger joint Smash in the Flagey area however, went the extra mile, and exclusively serves beers from Brussels breweries with their pressed patties.
A Syrian restaurant wouldn’t be the first place we’d look for beer. However, after spotting L’Ermitage branded parasols outside one of the restaurants of My Tannour, we had to put it on the list for a visit. When we then went for lunch in their Rue de la Brasserie outlet, a selection of their beers was indeed available to enjoy with our lamb wrap and falafel dish!
We’ve had our fair share of pizzas in Brussels already, but New York-style pizza as it is made at Fight Club, that was a first for us. Not only has this cosy corner restaurant something new and interesting to eat, it also exclusively serves Brussels beers! A tasty slice of pepperoni pizza and a glass of Brasserie de la Mule Lager from the tap, who could resist that?
With the name Chez Lutgarde, it is not surprising they mostly serve beers from the young Lasne brewery Abbaye d’Aywiers, better known by the name most of their beers carry: Lutgarde. You could even consider this bar the downtown taproom of the brewery. What drew us in, however, were the advertisements for some Brussels breweries you don’t see in that many other bars yet, like Brasserie Vandekelder! Once inside, we discovered that actually all the beers they serve, are from small, independent breweries, and quite a lot of them even from Brussels!
Our visit to Le Wappers was long overdue, but we finally made it back to Schaerbeek for a visit to this tavern! Without even reading a word on the menu, its design by Jean Goovaerts immediately makes it quite clear: there will be plenty of De la Senne beers to enjoy!
Probably just as important as the beer, is the spaghetti served here in the evening, providing punters with a tasty and efficient way to line the stomach for a night of beers with friends.
At every beer festival you’ll find them: groups of friends playing a card or board game, while sipping on the available beers. That means there’s clearly some overlap between gamers and craft beer lovers, and for them there is Le Bar à Jeux! An excellent selection of beers, combined with a huge library of games to play, makes it easy to spend quite a bit of time there without even noticing. And when the rumbling of the stomach draws attention to the passing of the hours, there is some food available as well to keep you going!
At first glance, MangiaSempre is a shop, or more specifically, an Italian ‘bottega’. The shelves and fridge counter are stacked with high quality products, everything you need to cook up an Italian meal at home, and yes, even some beers.
But then you’ll notice the beer taps and the menu with the daily specials and sandwiches, and you’ll quickly realise MangiaSempre is so much more than just a shop! Although the terrace with Brasserie de la Mule parasols probably was a bit of a giveaway already…
Surprises can be right around the corner, and sometimes quite literally, as was the case for Knees to Chin. We must have passed their Brussels center restaurant dozens of times, without thinking it would actually be a candidate for our blog. Then all of a sudden, we noticed people drinking some Dutch craft beer here! One might expect beers from a microbrewery like De Kromme Haring in a specialised bar—we actually attended a meet-the-brewer and tap takeover with these guys at GIST a while back—but not quite in a Vietnamese street food restaurant. Of course, now we had to check the place out!
After many months of anticipation, the pieces of the administrative puzzle fell into place, and Mazette could finally open its doors and beer taps. Mind you, having a brew kettle, a kitchen, a huge wood-fired oven, and a comfortable space for the customers, all in one open space, was never going to be simple. But since the fire department gave its final go-ahead a little over a month ago, we’re able to enjoy all the products this utterly loveable cooperative brewpub in the Marolles has to offer: freshly brewed beers, straight from the tank, homemade sourdough bread baked in the aforementioned oven, and seasonal food.
The opening of Brasserie Surréaliste taproom is one we’ve been waiting for for a long time. The most obvious reason is that it’s right in our neighbourhood, only a couple of minutes’ walk away. It certainly helps they brew cracking beers, though, right there on the premises, below your feet when you’re standing at the bar. The fact that they managed to convert a space that has been neglected for way too long into something so beautiful, is just the icing on the cake. And starting today, it’s open for everyone to enjoy!