It makes so much sense to have a beer with your chips, it is just crazy nobody thought to open a craft beer chip shop in Brussels before. Bintje stepped up to the plate, and opened their chip shop in the Chatelain area of Ixelles last December. Not only do they serve two draught beers — currently both from De la Senne — with their organic chips, there are dozens more of excellent bottled and canned beers — both Belgian and foreign — to choose from, certainly a lot more than any other bar in the neighbourhood, as far as we know!
ILLegaaL
Les Ecuries van de Tram
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!
Le Phare du Kanaal
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…
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!
1030 Café
Schaerbeek is becoming more and more interesting for beer lovers: last Saturday 1030 Café opened its doors, and more importantly, its taps! Behind those taps you’ll find the brothers Guillaume and Max.
We met with and talked to Guillaume before, when he was still working as a bartender at another bar in Brussels, so we already knew he was passionate about beer, and we couldn’t wait to see his and his brother’s bar!