bottled

La Belladone

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UPDATE: Closed permanently…

In an area of Saint-Gilles where you can eat well, but will struggle to find many interesting places to have a drink afterwards, luckily there still is La Belladone. The Eastern European character the bar once had, seems to have faded away for the most part — still some spiced and regular vodkas on the menu though — but the art nouveau decor it has now, suited us just fine. Of course it helps when almost all beers are from smaller, artisanal breweries, as are the snacks.

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À la Bécasse

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After a gueuze and lambic filled weekend, we decided to visit a venue best know for its sweet lambic in earthenware jugs: À la Bécasse. The bar is visited by both tourists – a lot of them – and locals, looking for something ‘authentic’ and probably easy to drink. The upper bar room even is quite popular with students, ordering 10 and 20 liter jugs to keep them hydrated during a cantus, a tradition filled evening of singing and – of course – drinking.

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JeanBon

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We were a bit hesitant to write about JeanBon on our blog: there was only one beer in the fridge, and it wasn’t even a great one… However, the delicious baguettes made more than up for this shortcoming. On the store shelves, there was a choice of better beers available — like a Geuze Boon, or Bertinchamps‘ La Prose — some of which would have paired nicely with our lunch in the windowsill. Could you please put some of those beers in the fridge as well, Jean?

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Restobières

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UPDATE: Closed permanently…

When it comes to beer and food, you can’t look past Restobières. Their Belgian dishes, often using beer as an ingredient, combined with beers from mostly smaller breweries — no InBev here — makes the restaurant a must-visit on the list of many beer tourists coming to Brussels. But even though many of the customers here are tourists — I think we were the only locals during our visit — the quality of the food and beers here is much higher than in the Rue des Bouchers! 

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Streetpecker

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The Pecker family just keeps expanding. And after the outdoorsy Woodpecker, the much more urban Streetpecker opened on the still-not-quite-finished Place Rogier. The concept is more like the slightly older Peck 47 and 20 though: a great selection of — often very eggy — breakfast, brunch and lunch dishes, which can be washed down with one of the local beers, in a trendy but still welcoming setting.

 

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Central Park

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Schaerbeek is huge, and to get from 1030 Café to the Barboteur is quite a walk. Luckily, about halfway, you’ll find Central Park, right on the edge of the Josaphat Park it is obviously referring to. During your pit-stop there, you’ll be able to choose from ten beers on draught, among which a few familiar locals — like ‘super chilled’ Delta and Zinnebir — a classic like Saison Dupont, but a changing guest beer as as well. 

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Chez Richard

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In a fancy area like the one around the Sablon square, one would expect a champagne bar rather than a beer bar. Now, we wouldn’t really call Chez Richard a beer bar, but it did manage to surprise us nevertheless. First of all: they have Jambe-de-Bois on draught. That’s a good start, but not too uncommon anymore nowadays. Noticing BrewDog‘s Punk IPA on the menu made us happy, only to be disappointed when we were told it was temporarily out of stock. The unexpected alternative offered however, made more than up for the discomfort: Cali from Tiny Rebel!

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Les Ecuries van de Tram

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UPDATE: Closed permanently…

Les Ecuries van de Tram has been the setting for two beer events already mentioned on this blog: the Barboteur Beersdays and the first edition of SWAFFF! But is was only when we were a bit early for the latter, we noticed that — even though there are no draught beers available — the Ecuries‘ own fridges were quite well stocked already! The presence of De la Senne and Brussels Beer Project beers is not that surprising anymore, Illegaal and Dupont only a bit, but seeing the Dochter van de Korenaar and BrewDog in a bar like this was completely unexpected!

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Le Phare du Kanaal

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Although you’ll find people working on their laptops in most bars nowadays, at Le Phare du Kanaal this is an even more common occurrence than elsewhere. This isn’t surprising, considering Le Phare is a co-working space first and foremost. However, none of the offices I ever worked at had such a selection of beers from Brussels breweries to enjoy once the laptop closes… 

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Les Brasseurs

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Les Brasseurs is a bar that could easily go under the radar of beer lovers. At least it went under ours, until we discovered their lambic beers, and in particular, the 2-Year Unblended Oude Lambiek by Boon they have available on draught, served in earthenware jugs in different sizes. A note for Untappd geeks like us: some of the bartenders are even quite happy to check which foeder the currently served lambic is from!

Add three beers of the month — one gueuze, one draught, and one bottle — to the mix, and you end up with enough options to keep you tasting — or just enjoying — beers for a while!

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