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!
La Brocante
UPDATE: Closed permanently…
La Brocante must have been the place we’ve fruitlessly been trying to get in to most often. Yes, it’s open every day, but it closes already at seven — on Monday and Saturday even at six — and that’s usually long before we make our way to the Marolles, especially if we’re going for a big bottle of gueuze, one of the specialities of the house. The name should have been a giveaway though: this place is all about the daily antiques / flea market on the Place du Jeu de Balle. We finally made it, though!
Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!*
Or: a happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all of you!
The celebrations accompanying this Irish holiday spread all over the world, and have been adopted — or should I say appropriated? — by many not in any way linked to the Emerald Isle. In Brussels it’s no different, and you’ll see Manneken Pis in an Aran jumper, city hall illuminated in green, and loads of — intoxicated — people wearing either a leprechaun hat, or one shaped like pint of Guinness. Of course Guinness is heavily promoting theses celebrations, as if the doubling of consumption of their beers isn’t enough already…
But you can celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day in a more classy way, avoiding the aforementioned stout completely, and visit a couple of bars actually serving Irish craft beer, for the occasion. Eight Degrees Brewing in particular seems to be well represented.
Het Goudblommeke in Papier
There’s quite a bit of history to Het Goudblommeke in Papier, even though it’s ‘only’ a little over 70 years old, and it’s not surprising a lot of effort went into reopening the bar after a bankruptcy a decade ago. But the protected building and bar rooms of this ‘marigold in paper’ have more to offer than just memories of René Magritte and Guido Gezelle: artistic performances of all sorts, but of course good Belgian food and beer as well!