It had been a while since we last visited the Flagey area for a drink, but Le Murmure still looked pretty much the same as last time we were there. And that’s quite quirky, with its copper pipes curling through the space over our heads, and colourful wall paintings. More importantly however, the De la Senne beers were still pouring from its taps, and quite a few gems from Belgium and abroad adorned the bottle list.
on draught
Brasserie de la Senne
UPDATE: Moved to Tour & Taxis, and added their Zennebar taproom!
On this blog, we’ve mentioned Brasserie de la Senne several times. For us, it’s always a reassurance to see their beers on draught in a bar, and a good indication somebody made at least some effort to put together an interesting beer list, including a selection of local products. It was high time we headed to Molenbeek and paid the brewery itself a visit!
Vini, Birre, Ribelli
Even though Vini, Birre, Ribelli is primarily a wine festival — over 75% of the participants are winemakers — this still is one festival beer lovers in Brussels can’t afford to miss! The third edition moved once again to a bigger location, this year occupying the Citroën site near Yser. Oh, and no ‘sessions’, no tokens, just a fixed entrance fee and unlimited refills of your tasting glass!
The Hairy Canary
“Victorian pub” it says on the terrace screen outside The Hairy Canary, and that is exactly what it looks like when you enter. The Hairy Canary is the kind op bar where you would expect the bartender to fill your pint glass, slowly pulling cask ale through a beer engine. Unfortunately — or maybe not? — you’ll rarely find English cask ales on this side of the Channel. For those of you still curious about more traditional English ales, they do serve a couple of those in bottles.
La Tana
Update: La Tana has move across the street, to Rue de l'Enseignement 27, and beer shop La Tana 2.0 has moved to the same location. [venue id= 5e27564fa292720008bc3b61]
When visiting Rome a couple of years ago, there was only one beer bar to be found in the eternal city, and just a few interesting breweries in the whole of Italy. Much has changed since then, and many Italian beers now equal or surpass our Belgian brews. However, it is still quite rare to see an Italian restaurant serving those beers. Luckily for us, in 2014 two Romans — chef Valerio and his brother — opened a tiny place called La Tana, where they serve great pastas, and beers to match.
Hoppy Loft
UPDATE: Is just a part of the Delirium bar now, and doesn’t serve anything special anymore…
We had selected the Hoppy Loft for a blog post before, but that night they only had almost nothing but Huyghe beers on draught, and once you’ve tried their Delirium beers, you’ve had their best already. So we quickly left again, to visit an other place to write about for that week.
Lesson learnt: don’t go to the Hoppy Loft, unless they’ve announced something interesting on their Facebook page.
Luckily, last week they posted something about some beers from La Débauche, a French brewer until that moment unknown to us. Knowing there would al least a couple of new beers to try, we headed back to the dreaded Delirium Village…
ViaVia Traveler’s Café
UPDATE: Moved to the other side of the Vismet and got a new name: Au Bassin
ViaVia Traveler’s Café is not new, but its current location is. And what a difference it makes! We had visited ViaVia quite a few times before at its old location, and then it already was a very pleasant place, with a nice covered courtyard, and on sunny days a terrace on the sidewalk as well. But now, in addition to a courtyard — open this time — there are two more covered terraces. the barroom itself is a lot bigger than the old one as well.
When it comes to the beers and bites bit, it seems not much has changed so far: the menu is the same as before, or at least very similar.
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!
RITCS CAFE
A lot of universities and university colleges opened their doors to students again this or last week. One of these university colleges is the Erasmushogeschool Brussel, and their Arts department “Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound” has its own bar: RITCS CAFE. It’s not run by students — as often is the case for student bars in Leuven for instance — but very professionally, by beer lover Steven. Within the restrains of a space used as a college cafetaria at noon, he manages to make RITCS CAFE a place where both lager guzzling students and more discerning adult beer drinkers feel welcome in the evening.
The Sister
Every now and then, you’ll find an organic beer on the beer list of a bar. Often by coincidence, because some good beers just happen to be organic, sometimes it is a deliberate choice to offer some organic options for the more environmentally and health conscious customer. At The Sister however, the menu almost exclusively lists organic dishes, beers and other drinks. Almost, since four of the five draught beers are InBev beers, which couldn’t be less organic or even craft. No need to drink them though, there are plenty of tasty beers on the organic list!