BEAN TO LAPTOP

What a difference nine years makes.  Back in 2014 I wrote a piece about
the lack of decent coffee in Brussels.   Nine years later coffee bars are springing up
like mushrooms.  Generally referred to as “coffee shops” to indicate that you won’t
get a Grimbergen here (although if you do it’s likely to be cheaper than a latte
macchiato) one must be careful not to confuse them with “coffee shops” over the
border in the Netherlands, which is where you don’t buy coffee - you must go to a
“coffee bar” for that.  I know, it’s a minefield here in the Low Countries.

 

I am probably not the best person to write a review of the Brussels coffee scene,
being more of a tea-drinker.  I only got my first home expresso machine a couple of
months ago and am working my way through the varieties of aluminium capsule. 
However, when it comes to coffee outside I knows what I likes. 

The best morning (i.e. milky) coffee ever, in my humble opinion, is a Portuguese 

meia-leite. Milky but strong.  The perfect breakfast coffee.  If you want good 

coffee in Brussels without the hipsters, look for the DELTA or MELTINO logos 

on the café canopies, this usually indicates that the cafe is Portuguese owned, 

or at least sources their coffee from one of two reliable Portuguese coffee 

companies.  Pasteleria Garcia is the mecca for a meia leite and a pastel de nata.  

Pace my Italian friends, but the next best coffee for me is the Spanish caffe con
leche.  Again, they don’t stint on the actual coffee content.   With a freshly-squeezed
zumo de naranja and a pastry, consumed at leisure in the sun under a lemon tree,
the perfect breakfast.   There is no shortage of Italian coffee bars in Brussels, 

particularly around the European Quarter, and if it’s a tiny hit of very strong caffeine 

standing up at the bar that floats your boat early in the morning, you’re spoilt for 

choice.   However, an Italian once told me that the best coffee in Brussels was 

from the Ethiopian coffee house. 

 

For fans of Turkish coffee, you don’t need to go further than Little Anatolia in
Schaerbeek, where Turkish men sit calmly puffing on their shishas and sipping 

the thick electric syrup, while their wives go out cleaning offices.  Turkish 

supermarkets sell the legal alternative to Colombian marching powder for home 

brewing, as well as the little copper pots for cooking it.  I recommend making it at 

home if you are a woman or identify as such, Turkish cafes are very much a male 

preserve.

The US East Coast coffee scene is a whole other thing.  Particularly in the 

aftermath of the Covid lockdown, it is the last bastion of the Hipster.    I know 

Hipsters have been around for a decade or more in places like New York and 

London, but it's a more recent phenomenon in Belgium.  They are more prevalent 

in the Flemish parts of Brussels such as Dansaert but also St Gilles and the 

Chatelain part of Ixelles.  The new Gare Maritime complex at Tour & Taxis is 

surprisingly low on baristas for the moment but give it time.  

Spending time in a coffee house is not just about the coffee.  In fact, it’s very 

little about the coffee.  It’s about the EXPERIENCE.   Take a laptop even if you 

are only going to faff about on Tik Tok.  It indicates that you are an independent 

creative and not one of those suits at the Commission.  Be sure to hang out 

outside of standard lunch breaks, to show that you are your own boss.  Many 

of the trendier coffee shops can be found near a co-working space, which is 

where the more successful hipster will set up shop.  Students and others often 

work out of coffee shops, which, given the cost of heating right now, might not 

be as pretentious as it sounds.

If you are a boomer like me, here’s how to spot a Hipster (almost exclusively male):
Aged 20 to 30.  Dressed casually but expensively (particularly the shoes).  Hair 

expensively coiffed or tied in a man bun, sometimes covered by a knitted bonnet.  

Facial hair, anything from designer stubble to full Players Navy Cut with curly 

mustache (optional for females). Expensive laptop.  Lily white delicate hands, 

never done an honest day’s work in his life.  Very slim, in order to rock skinny jeans 

and skinny plain ribbed sweater.  Drinking a matcha frappé or a chai latte with 

almond milk.  If he is eating anything, it will be organic and cereal based, 

or involve quinoa. This is a growing demographic, and they are not poor, hence 

the price of “speciality” coffee.  The trust fund will cover any shortfall. 

 

Such trendy coffee bars have minimalist decor - Swedish or Japanese, to aid the 

concentration required for all that intense intellectual work they are doing on their
laptops - with blond wood floors, white or bare brick walls, one or two exotic plants,
some muted ambient trance music and a Swiss coffee machine that is worth more
than your house.  The male baristas (like ‘barrister’ but without the years of study)
will invariably have a man bun and at least one piercing and/or tattoo.  No more
“Central Perk” type comfy chairs, it will be low stools or minimalist designer chairs, 

either way uncomfortable.   They usually don’t take cash and are often closed in the 

evening.  Due to the recruitment of inexperienced youngsters post lockdown, they 

may take an age to prepare your coffee, by which time it will be luke warm.  

As for the bill of fare, if the café calls itself “speciality” or “specialty” coffee shop it may 

have its own roastery or buy its coffee from a boutique torrefactor.  It may offer a 

selection of roasts from different countries in formats from straight-up to macchiato 

via flat white, lungo or ristretto (the old school “lait russe” is increasingly rare), ground 

 specially for you on demand, with a choice of milk from cow juice to almond, coconut 

and soy. They may sell beans and ground coffee on the side at eyewatering prices.  

Pastries will be home made, food will be salads and tofu and easy to prepare stuff 

as proper cooking is so Gen X.    

I could be a bit more adventurous about my coffee drinking.  In sultry Vietnam I really
enjoyed the iced coffee which you can now find in many a Vietnamese restaurant 

here in Brussels.  An iced coffee is a nice option on a hot day, and I must confess 

to being tempted by the coconut and lemongrass latte at Stella, albeit more as a 

dessert than a beverage.  My benchmark when drinking coffee outside the home is 

a flat white, which I discovered in London (it was invented in Australia) and which is 

the nearest I’ve found to a meia-leite.  I drink milky coffee before lunch and espresso 

after a meal.  I don’t want flavoured syrup of any kind in my coffee and I prefer the milk 

to come out of a cow where possible, call me old-fashioned.  (OK, Boomer).   

Here is a handy guide to what to order in one of the new type of coffee bar.  You don’t 

want to get your doppio mocha frappuccino confused with your flat white.

When I was a gel, the term “speciality coffee” on a menu indicated an after-dinner 

chaser made with hot coffee, alcohol and cream.  The classic is the Irish Coffee, 

which I learned to make when working as a waitress with my dad, an old-school 

Maitre D.  You need a large heavy glass three quarters full of hot strong filter coffee 

sweetened with a lot of brown sugar and fortified with a good slug of Irish whiskey, 

onto which you slowly pour about 2cm of chilled double cream (not whipped!) onto 

the surface of the hot coffee over the back of a cold soup spoon.  The finished 

beverage should look like a Guinness.  You can substitute other spirits for Irish 

whiskey, and you drink the coffee THROUGH the cream.  I have not found one 

establishment, however high class, who can do this properly these days.  O tempora, 

o mores! 

Brussels Coffee Week will be in October 2023 when you can take part in “cuppings” 

(who he? - Ed.), physio workshops for baristas  (!!) and latte art contests.  They 

provide a curated map of more than 50 trendy Brussels coffee shops some 

of which you will find here.

Chains

 

EXKI

If you must.  They are everywhere in Brussels.  A kind of Belgian Pret à Manger 

(although there is actually a Pret now, at Rogier) where they will do a halfway 

decent macchiato or cappuccino.  

PAIN QUOTIDIEN

Like Exki only with nice bread and big wooden tables.

STARBUCKS

- Pl Rogier

- Gare du Midi

- Gare Centrale

“Speciality” coffee shops

Hinterland

Ch de Charleroi 79

St Gilles

My Little Cup

Rue de la Croix de Fer 53

Bouche

Rue de Namur 4

owned by same ppl as My Little Cup

Corica

- rue du Marché aux Poulets 49

- rue Caroly 39

The only place to my knowledge you will find the elusive Jamaican Blue Mountain roast. 

Huge selection of rare and exotic coffees to drink in or buy, coffee pots and accessories.

Kaffabar

Place Rouppe 1

Closed Sunday and Monday

Café Boudin

Rue Ravenstein 20

Opposite Bozar

MOK

Rue Antoine Dansaert 196

Café du Sablon

Rue de la Régence 26

Opposite N.D.des Victoires church and next to the place du Petit Sablon

Belga & Co

- rue du Bailli 7A, Chatelain

- rue Ernest Solvay 12, St Boniface

Fika

Rue de la Paix 17

St Boniface

 

Kanel

Rue Vanderkindere 497, Uccle

Caffe Latte

Rue du Commerce 19, European Quarter

Living Room

Place Jean Rey 8

opposite Parc Léopold

Café Capitale

- Rue du Midi 45

Ana Attento

- Place Jourdan 13A (OR roastery)

- rue Auguste Orts 9 (next to Marriott Hotel at Bourse)

 

Café de la Presse
Avenue Louise 493  

Natural Caffé
Avenue Louise 196A

JAT' Café
Rue de Namur 28
Chaussée de Charleroi 116

Stella Coffee Bar
Chaussée de Charleroi 91A 

Wide Awake
Rue de Flandre 185
Next to Cafe Walvis by the canal

 

My personal recommendations

Boentje Café

Place Colignon

next to Schaerbeek town hall - nice place to wait for your appointment at the
Commune or celebrate obtaining your residence card

 

Pasteleria Garcia

Avenue de la Couronne 75-77

Meia de leite and a pastel de nata.  You won’t regret it.

Aksum Coffee House

Galerie du Roi 3

The original Ethiopian coffee house, owned by a Finn with a deep love of Ethiopia.

Pho Diem Xuan

Chaussée de Boondael 325

Authentic Vietnamese Caphé Sua Da - iced sweet cold drip coffee with condensed milk.
Vietnamese company Highlands Coffee now markets tins of Ca Phé Sua Da, check your
local VN food mart. 

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE STRAWBERRY FRAPPUCCINO

By Daphne Wayne-Bough

Coffee is not the average Belgian's first thought when he/she walks into a bar or café, to be honest.  Beer is a more likely choice.  Until recently there was no real difference between a bar and a café here, the terms were interchangeable, and most of them serve food in one form or another as well.  In a regular bar, a latte is known as a "lait russe" (Russian milk) because it is served in a glass, and whether you order 'un café' or 'un café au lait' you will get a black filter coffee with a small pot of milk on the side and a speculoos biscuit or a chocolate.  Most bars also serve Italian style (emphasis on the style, not on the “Italian”) coffee such as espresso or cappuccino.   Service is not as speedy as in Paris or as friendly as in New York.  Foreigners constantly complain about the slow, surly waiters and waitresses in Brussels cafés.   In the end, it all depends what you’re looking for:  if it’s beautiful surroundings, you might have to go without free wi-fi.  If it’s a view, you might get appalling service.  And in most cases, the coffee will be nothing to write home about.

Starbucks has just taken hold in Brussels, meaning it's several years behind London in café culture.  Cold drip coffee, for example, has not yet made an appearance here.  Brussels is still at the Central Perk stage, a comfy seat in a coffee shop is a relatively new thing.   They tend to judge a coffee experience still by the quality of the coffee in the cup, which as any barista knows, is the last thing a good coffee bar thinks about.  It's all about the lifestyle experience, and one must dress the hipster if one is going to hang out reading Philippe Djian on one's iPad whilst sipping overpriced mediocre coffee with a flower drawn on the froth.  For men, tweed cap, waistcoat and jeans topped off with a white silk scarf knotted loosely at the neck like a pashmina are the appropriate uniform.  Women can get away with anything, as long as they have a copious and expensive handbag.  

Classic cafés

Café Belga, on place Flagey 18, is what the French always refer to as “incontournable”, which roughly translates as “a classic”.   Built into the ground floor of the iconic original RTBF building, it is THE place to stop for a coffee or a beer after a hard Sunday morning gathering handmade olive bread, sundried tomatoes or organic mushrooms from the weekend market on the square.   

Fans of Jacques Brel should drop in to Le Cirio on Place de la Bourse, which JB used to frequent. There is a photograph of him on the wall at the back, taken in the cafe.  They serve tea and coffee, but the house speciality is "Half en Half" - half champagne, half white wine.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g188644-d2032109-Reviews-Le_Cirio-Brussels.html     


Just up the road on Place de Brouckère is the Café Metropole with its gorgeous art deco interior, recently renovated and renamed.     Sit and watch the world go by from the open terrace overlooking the square that Jacques Brel mentioned  in one of his songs, "Bruxelles".

 


Surrealist cafés

La Fleur en Papier Doré, (Het Goudblommeke in Flemish)  55 rue des Alexiens, where the early surrealists used to hang out, is a piece of history, where you could find yourself sitting in the same seat once occupied by Magritte or Hergé.

Cultural cafés

Some of the nicest cafés in Brussels are in museums.  The café-restaurant in the Belgian Comic Strip Centre offers food and drinks whimsically named after famous comic strip characters such as Tintin.  It is also a beautiful room in this gorgeous art deco building designed by Victor Horta, Belgium's art deco maestro.

The Flemish Library at the Munt, known as the MuntPunt, has a trendy café bar at the back, the Grand Cafe, with an entrance on Rue des Dominicains.  Full of Flemish hipsters complaining there is not  enough ginger in their chai latte, with free wi-fi and cool Cuban music.  Sometimes has live events.

 Gratuitous picture of froth kitten to prove how irrelevant 

the quality of coffee has become

Cafés with a view

One of the best views in Brussels can be had from the café on the top floor of the Museum of Musical Instruments or MIM, in another beautiful art deco building, which has a fabulous roof terrace.  Sunday brunch on a summer day is a must.  The Museum is pretty good fun too.   http://www.mim.be/the-restaurant

And if its views you're wanting, the café at the very top of the Atomium (our answer to the Eiffel Tower) is unmissable - which is more than can be said for the coffee.

People-watching

The coffee might be nothing special in Brussels, but the cakes are worth the detour.  Cafe Wittamer on Place du Grand Sablon specializes in home made macarons in lots of exciting flavours.  The square also boasts several top chocolatiers, including the uber-trendy Pierre Marcolini and an antiques market on Sundays.  The Sablons is people-watching heaven.  Hipsters mingle with antique dealers and tourists to sip aperitifs and cast a critical eye on the wealthy passers-by in their Chanel suits and matching miniature poodles.

Sunday is also the day to visit Les Marolles, the oldest district of Brussels, where the flea market and the second-hand furniture and antique shops are open all day.  Around the flea market at Place Jeu de Balle (where Tintin found the model ship in The Secret of the Unicorn, on which Spielberg based his film)  are a number of popular cafés and restaurants which are great for people-watching, especially if the weather is clement.  

In summer try and get down to the Bois de la Cambre, the beginning of the vast Forest of Soignes  at the bottom of the chic Avenue Louise.  In the middle of the park is a lake, and in the middle of the lake is a cafe called Le Chalet Robinson, which can be reached by a motorised raft. http://www.chouxdebruxelles.be/en/venue_chaletrobinson.html

Bean to cup

The Flemish have historically taken their coffee a bit more seriously which is to be expected,  since Antwerp is the world’s biggest coffee port.  Flemish coffee shops – not to be confused with Amsterdam coffee shops, which are something different entirely – are finding their way down to Brussels, and about time too.

Ghent coffee specialists Or Coffee Roasters now have two coffee bars in Brussels now, one at Rue Auguste Orts 9 in trendy St Géry, the second on equally hip Place Jourdan 13a.  Many varieties of freshly-ground coffee are available to savour in faux-industrial surroundings. 

If you want to know about coffee, ask an Italian.  The Italian I asked told me that in his opinion the best coffee in Brussels was Ethiopian coffee house Aksum at rue des Eperonniers 60 in the old town near the Grand’Place.  Aksum is too cool for its own good, run by an Ethiopia-obsessed Finn.



And talking of Ethiopia, Ethiopian restaurant Toukoul has an Ethiopian coffee ceremony every afternoon on a weekend, performed by a charming Ethiopian lady in traditional dress. 

Corica (Comptoir oriental des cafés) in Rue Marché aux Poulets 49, just off Anspach, is an unprepossessing little place with no seating – you stand at the bar – but the best selection of coffees in town.  This is where you can taste that Jamaican Blue Mountain your dad always told you about, Sumatran Java, Ethiopian Harar or Zambia Elephant Coffee.  (Hopefully not made the same way as Vietnamese weasel coffee).

(Nothing to do with real coffee, but if you really can't manage without your Tall Flat Strawberry Mocha, there are now several branches of Starbucks in Brussels now – three at the airport alone, one at the Gare du Nord, the Gare Centrale, inside Rogier metro station near the Gare du Nord, and – sacrilege! – now on the Grand’Place).


In the slipstream of Starbucks, some real “coffee bars” have seen the light of day recently , and the brunch/teatime scene has developed a new dimension.  Café Jat’ and Workshop Café at 28 and 87 Rue de Namur respectively, are pleasant, airy spaces with comfy sofas where you can have brunch, lunch, drinks, meet a friend or just sit and read the papers (on your Kindle) (my next piece will be entitled “How to be a Brussels Hipster”).  

Chic Avenue Louise boasts the original Workshop Café at no. 146,  Natural Caffé at no. 196a  (at the Lesbroussart tram stop) and Café de la Presse  at no.493 down near the Bois de la Cambre.  Natural Caffé have just opened two new branches at Schuman (rue Breydel 50) and Mont des Arts 20.  

Finally, following my triumphant tour of 'Nam, where I became addicted to Vietnamese iced coffee, there is one place in Brussels where you can actually sample it.  Of course it doesn't taste the same in Brussels weather, but Vietnam Express on Rue de la Paix just off Place St Boniface will run you up a fair approximation of a cà phê sữa đá. 

.

Listings:

http://www.smarksthespots.com/brussels/cafes/

http://www.oubruncher.com/brunch-bruxelles.php