Belgium and Luxembourg (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Brussels’s Cafés and Bars

A long history of conviviality lies behind Brussels’s

countless cafés and bars. Brewing has been a major

industry here since medieval times, when the

tavern was an important social hub. During

the 19th century, the culture of the coffeehouse

combined with the time-honoured traditions of

the tavern to produce elegant and sophisticated

cafés where men and women could meet with

decorum and still enjoy a drink in the customary Belgian

way. Many contemporary cafés and bars remain delightfully

rooted in the past, while others bristle with ultra-modern

style, but all are heirs to the same tradition of hospitality.

90 BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG REGION BY REGION

Le Roy d’Espagne is

a huge two-tiered bar

occupying the elegant

guildhouse of the

bakers in the Grand

Place. In warmer

months, customers

spill out from the

atmospheric interior,

famously decorated

with inflated pigs’

bladders. It is a fine

place to sample the

best Trappist beers and

traditional tavern food.

A waiter in a traditional tabard

apron at Le Roy d’Espagne

READY FOR ACTION

Bars operate with efficiency when the

pressure heats up, and staff work with

a dedicated professionalism honed by

centuries of experience. Like many bars,

Mappa Mundo, in trendy St-Géry, keeps

long hours. It may have quiet moments

during the day, but will brim over with

thirsty customers well into the night.

A glass for

every beer

Café Metropole is the café-cum-bar of one of

Brussels’s most prestigious hotels, with an interior

lavishly decorated in 18th-century French style.

The terrace is the place to see and be seen. Despite

its grand air, everyone is made welcome.

Le Falstaff, facing the Bourse, is famous

for its authentic Art Nouveau decor fea-

turing stained glass, mirrors, lamps and

woodwork. This popular bar, café and

restaurant seems to have bottled the atmos-

phere of 1903, the year of its creation.