The Marolles… A wonderful part of Brussels, mixing old and new, craft and commercial, and this goes both for the beers and the furniture and other objects sold in this part of town. Wiel’s Renard Noir — in the middle of d’Huugstroet (High Street) — is very much in touch with its past, with its old photos, paintings, and relief tiles with religious scenes, while serving twenty-first century ales to young hipsters and old geezers alike.
Bites
Places where you can go for lunch or dinner, and enjoy a nice beer with it.
Brasserie 28
UPDATE: Seems to be closed. A note said for renovations, but they hadn’t been open on the advertised hours for months before…
The former post office in the Central Station is finally in use again! Not for any postal needs of course — who still sends letters these days? — but for a bite and and a beer. Brasserie 28 will — eventually — not only serve 30 different draught beers and even more on bottle to consume in the bar, but everything is — or very soon will be — available to take away. Having a “train beer” when travelling from Central Station suddenly became interesting!
Peck 47
The Kiekenmarkt or Rue du Marché aux Poulets received a makeover in 2012, making it car-free and therefore much more attractive for everyone, but businesses in the food and drink industry in particular. Sure, Corica en Celtica fared quite well already, when there was only a three tile wide pavement in front of their doors, but the street’s renaissance attracted some new entrepreneurs as well. We already told the success story of Bia Mara, but a couple of doors up the street, Peck 47 has become a food and drink hot spot as well!
Saco Pizza Bar
We’ve already taken you to a real Italian restaurant with this blog, but so far, we hadn’t yet mentioned the Italian fast food par excellence: pizza. There are dozens of pizza places in Brussels, but as often is the case with fast food places, serving good beer is rarely a priority there. A happy exception to this rule is Saco Pizza Bar, serving both great pizzas, and an excellent selection of Belgian beers.
Houtsiplou
Burgers and beer are an excellent combination, we have mentioned that before. Not everybody likes burgers though, or at least not all the time. Luckily, at Houtsiplou the menu consist of more than just burgers, offering a range of classic Belgian dishes and some others as well. Your dining partner prefers beef carpaccio over beef burgers? No problem here!
Beer Mania
There are many beer stores in Brussels, but only a few make an effort to differentiate themselves from the rest. Beer Mania does so in two different ways: firstly, you can have a cold beer and a meal there, and even quite late. Secondly, they have their own beer, available nowhere else. We had visited Beer Mania already a couple of years ago, but our beer buying interests have since then moved from the mostly Belgian beers on offer there. When they announced a Finnish beer festival however, we saw it as an excellent reason to return.
La Tana
Update: La Tana has move across the street, to Rue de l'Enseignement 27, and beer shop La Tana 2.0 has moved to the same location. [venue id= 5e27564fa292720008bc3b61]
When visiting Rome a couple of years ago, there was only one beer bar to be found in the eternal city, and just a few interesting breweries in the whole of Italy. Much has changed since then, and many Italian beers now equal or surpass our Belgian brews. However, it is still quite rare to see an Italian restaurant serving those beers. Luckily for us, in 2014 two Romans — chef Valerio and his brother — opened a tiny place called La Tana, where they serve great pastas, and beers to match.
Pistolet Original
Having a beer with your lunch — even on a normal work day — isn’t uncommon in Belgium, but finding high quality beer in a sandwich place, is. At Pistolet Original they’re not only serving some of the best Brussels beers to drink with your ‘pistolet’, they even use our beloved Cantillon gueuze as an ingredient for their latest creation, the Zenne Pistolet Cantillon!
ViaVia Traveler’s Café
UPDATE: Moved to the other side of the Vismet and got a new name: Au Bassin
ViaVia Traveler’s Café is not new, but its current location is. And what a difference it makes! We had visited ViaVia quite a few times before at its old location, and then it already was a very pleasant place, with a nice covered courtyard, and on sunny days a terrace on the sidewalk as well. But now, in addition to a courtyard — open this time — there are two more covered terraces. the barroom itself is a lot bigger than the old one as well.
When it comes to the beers and bites bit, it seems not much has changed so far: the menu is the same as before, or at least very similar.
The Sister
Every now and then, you’ll find an organic beer on the beer list of a bar. Often by coincidence, because some good beers just happen to be organic, sometimes it is a deliberate choice to offer some organic options for the more environmentally and health conscious customer. At The Sister however, the menu almost exclusively lists organic dishes, beers and other drinks. Almost, since four of the five draught beers are InBev beers, which couldn’t be less organic or even craft. No need to drink them though, there are plenty of tasty beers on the organic list!