In Schaerbeek, the bar scene is moving at a very high pace, and just a couple of weeks ago, yet another bar opened in this northern municipality: Copain. It’s just two blocks down from 1030 Café, so the area is actually becoming quite interesting for bar hoppers who’d like to drink something else than just cheap lager or one of those abbey ales that are a dime a dozen. The subtitle “Beer, Wine & Friends” sums up the bar quite nicely: a place to enjoy quality drinks, in nice, sometimes very cosy, surroundings.
Chill’b
UPDATE: Closed permanently…
Sometimes a lot of time goes in deciding which bar or restaurant to choose to feature next on our blog, going over our list of potential venues over and over again, trying to find something that fits our mood and the available time. And sometimes you just stumble upon a candidate when going out for an easy dinner in a recently opened burger bar. As it turns out, Chill’b perfectly fits the conditions to feature on here: is a place where you can have a nice meal, and — quite unexpectedly — with a good beer.
Les 3 Frères
UPDATE: Closed permanently…
It must be that the love for good beer — made with an equal amount of love — is infectious, since once again, we find ourselves in Saint-Gilles, at only a few hundred meters from ‘patient zero’, Moeder Lambic. At Les 3 Frères (the three brothers) this love for beer — especially for those made by De la Senne and Tartaruga — comes with a love for food as well, serving dishes ranging from a simple soup or croque monsieur, to tagliatelle with asparagus, courgettes and artichokes, and perfectly cooked steak.
Café Maison du Peuple
We should have known better than to come to a big bar on the liveliest square of Saint-Gilles on a Friday evening… But we just tried to ignore the plastic cups, loud music and ID-less bouncers, and focussed on the surprisingly rich beer menu of Café Maison du Peuple instead. We didn’t just discover beers from De la Senne, Brussels Beer Project and Beerstorming from — very — nearby, but even bottles and cans from Stone, BrewDog and The Kernel from abroad!
Birrabus at the Brussels Food Truck Festival
A food truck festival is already a lot of foodie fun — albeit often quite expensive — but the addition of some decent beer makes such a festival the perfect weekend activity. The Brussels edition is lucky enough to welcome the Birrabus once again. Even in the obligatory reusable plastic cups, the Italian beer pouring from the taps on the side of a schoolbus, still tastes delicious.
So if you’re going to the Brussels Food Truck Festival this weekend, don’t hesitate to take a moment to sit in one of the school benches in front of the Birrabus, and try a couple of the 18 different beers from Hammer, Lambrate, CANEDIGUERRA, BrewFist or Birranova.
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!
Théâtre Royal de Toone
A puppet theatre wouldn’t be the first place you’d look for a nice beer, would it? But hidden away at the end of a narrow alley, the estaminet attached to Théâtre Royal de Toone is serving beers from Oud Beersel and Boon on draught, and a few more interesting beers on bottle! Even though we’ve been at Toone a couple of times already, so far, we have never seen a show. But if you’re interested, there are plenty of puppets hanging around — literally — to get an idea of what you can expect ‘on stage’, three nights a week.
Marcel Burger Bar
UPDATE: Closed permanently…
Marcel Burger Bar had been on our list for quite some while — they serve burgers, paired with a specific beer, so what’s not to like? — but we simply hadn’t got around to it. We even passed it a couple of times already — it’s only two houses down from CHEZWaWa, and not that far from BALLEKES either — but on a recent sunny Sunday afternoon — possibly not the best time, if the sound of children is not your favourite music — we finally made it to the burger bar.
Brass’art
UPDATE: Closed permanently…
Until recently, the only way to enjoy a couple of decent beers in Molenbeek, was to go to the De la Senne brewery, it seemed, and even they will be moving elsewhere soon. However, just last month a new bar opened, by the name of Brass’art. Fears of it only serving mint tea proved to be unfounded, and Mohamed Ouachen, the driving force behind this project, served us a couple of nice beers, and an — at least for us — exotic but tasty ‘threesome of flavours’ to accompany it.
BXL BeerFest 2017
The beer festival season has started again, and this year sees the launch of yet another festival, but one we’re particularly excited about: the BXL BeerFest! The beer festival is still a couple of months away — the 26th and 27th of August 2017 at Tour & Taxis — but tickets are already available now!