bottled

Chill’b

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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.

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Les 3 Frères

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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.

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Café Maison du Peuple

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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!

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Moka – Coffee & Beer

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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!

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Théâtre Royal de Toone

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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.

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Marcel Burger Bar

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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.

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Brass’art

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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.

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La Brocante

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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!

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Het Goudblommeke in Papier

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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!

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The Black Sheep

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DSC_0217xThere are plenty of bars in Brussels with a foreign touch — or more than just a touch — but only some are truly international. And by that I mean a bar where you can find beers from all over the world, but very local beers as well, and where you can hear the corresponding languages spoken. At The Black Sheep, the Lanterne from the Ixellois brewery L’Ermitage, pouring alongside the IPA from the American brewery in Berlin Stone, illustrates this perfectly.

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