Moka – Coffee & Beer

As much as we like our barley based drinks, we usually start our day with a bean based hot drink: coffee. Moka – Coffee & Beer predates the third wave of coffee by many years — or at least its traditional Faema E61 espresso machine from 1964 does — so don’t expect to be able to choose from many single origins or all kinds of fancy brewing methods. The house blend is fine, though, and by adding modern beer to the menu, however, the venue suddenly becomes a kind of place Brussels needs more of!

The modern beer in question is Illegaal, the first beer of a gypsy brewery or ‘brew firm’ with the same name. Well, I call it brew firm — since the actual brewing is outsourced to Belgo Sapiens Brewers, in Nivelles — but Illegaal is actually an ‘association without lucrative purpose’ with its roots in Schaerbeek, and the profits made are used to support artistic projects. The artistic side of Illegaal shows very clearly on the bottles as well: even though — until recently — there was only one Illegaal beer, there are about a dozen different labels, each showing the work of a different artist!

Illegaal is actually served on draught at Moka – Coffee & Beer, alongside Blanche de Bruges and Bavik pils. The beer of the month was supposed to be Illegaal‘s new blond ale Echt, but unfortunately, it hadn’t arrived yet.

Moka – Coffee & Beer is equipped with a small kitchen as well, from which they serve lunch every day. The offer varies greatly, from risottos, over BLT sandwiches to bulgur salads, just check their Facebook page for the latest lunch of the week. On the sweet side you might find homemade cinnamon rolls, pasteis de nata or cookies.

The combination of coffee and beer is not unheard of, look for instance at Kaschk in Berlin, an excellent example of a coffee bar by day, craft beer bar by night. But apart from a couple of experiments with coffee bean infused beers and cold brew beer cocktails, in Brussels, coffee and beer still are almost completely separated worlds. Hopefully Moka – Coffee & Beer proves to Brussels drinkers, that even without actually mixing the drinks or its ingredients, coffee and beer can be an excellent combination!

tl;dr

Beers

• 3 beers on draught
  • Illegaal

Bites

• A different lunch of the week every week
• BLT sandwiches
• Sweet snacks, like cinnamon rolls or pasteis de nata

[venue id= 4c012a5594c1c9b60acdba5f]

What have people been drinking here recently?