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. 

2022: THE YEAR OF GOING DUTCH

Last year we did a couple of jaunts to the Netherlands.  Not a country that had interested me much hitherto, but since retirement I have started learning Dutch and I had also realized that the Netherlands has a massive beach scene, weather notwithstanding.    From Cadzand to Friesland is a continuous string of Ibiza-type beach bars where you can sip a cocktail behind 3" thick perspex windbreaks, huddled round a firepit with a blanket over your shoulders, in the middle of August.    I exaggerate of course.  When it's nice in the Netherlands, why would you need to fly all the way to Ibiza. 

Scheveningen

We rented an AirBnB apartment on the old fishing port at Scheveningen.  The fishing fleets have all relocated to more modern facilities so it is now full of yachties and expensive marina restaurants.  The beach at Scheveningen is over 4 km long and is lively day and night, lined with Ibiza like bars and restaurants employing the entire student body of Rotterdam during the holidays, it would seem.   It was however late October and most things close around 6 pm at this time of year, so we never got to find out what secrets the pier concealed.  On the north side of the pier is the nocturnal beach scene where the youngsters congregate to listen to their thumpy trance music.  We old fogeys made our excuses and left.  The beach bars and kiosks tend to close early in October, even on a weekend, but we found a wonderful kibbeling joint on the corner of the harbour called the Vispaleis which is open until very late.  The old Visserhaven is where I discovered my first branch of Jumbo supermarkets which became my new Happy Place.

Gorbals prides himself on finding out-of-the-way, off-the-beaten-track, off-piste places.  He dragged me to a pub in an unprepossessing part of Scheveningen which was empty apart from a bored looking landlady watching darts on TV.  Unusually in the Netherlands, she spoke little English.  So we spent the evening chatting with her in our broken Dutch.  Turned out it was one of Scheveningen's darts clubs - darts is big in Netherlands - and as we were watching a match on TV I pulled from the darkest recesses of my memory the name Michael Van Gerwen, Dutchman and at the time world arrers champ.  This spurred her to switch over to the Darts Channel - yes there is a Dutch darts channel - and fill us in on Dutch darts culture.  In the back room were half a dozen dartboards with oches and proper lighting.  It was like a mini Crucible, with Grolsch. Luckily I had enough Dutch to shout out "honderdtachtig!" at the appropriate moment.  

 

Den Haag

On arrival in Den Haag we made our way to the Plein close by the Binnenhof and the Mauritshuis.  We stopped for lunch at a pleasant outdoor café called Cloos.  We then proceeded to the Mauritshuis where I learned it is impossible to take a photo of yourself as the Girl with a Pearl Earring unless you have arms that stretch four feet behind your head.  Or ask someone else to do it, obviously.  

 

 Girl with a cheap Chinese earring

 

 

Den Haag is home to one of Europe's biggest open air markets, the Haagse Markt. A feast for the eyes.

 

  

Utrecht

Pretty, pretty, pretty Utrecht.  I was just waiting for the ladies in Dutch caps and clogs to come dancing up.  More bicycles than you ever thought existed.  

Can't remember for the life of me what I had to eat in Utrecht.  

But here's a photo of it.

 

Leiden

 

As you stroll into the centre of Leiden you are welcomed by the most Dutch scene you could imagine.  The Molen de Valk is a museum of, er, milling. 

At the Pannenkoekenhuis De Schaapsbel on the pretty canalside Beestenmarkt I ordered a pancake.  It was only polite.  The service was very prompt and efficient. Our waiter - lovely smile, twinkly eyes - asked us "was het goed?" "ja, lekker" I replied (cos I speak fluent Dutch now innit) and asked him if the other waiter was his brother, as they looked very alike. "No, but same country," he replied. "Where are you from?" "Afghanistan".

 

 

We spent a couple of pleasant hours whiling away the afternoon at the music-themed Café 't Praethuys, one of Gorbals' old haunts.  

The next day we lunched at WAAG at Aalmarkt 21 on the canal.  (I don't know why I bother specifying "on the canal", virtually everything in Leiden is on the canal.) A former weighing house, it is very popular and trendy, and the interior conversion has been carefully preserved and enhanced with clever lighting.

After our evening in the darts pub in Den Haag, Gorbals followed his famous beer nose again to drag me into Café Papillon in Leiden. This is the sort of place where men go on a Saturday afternoon when the women are out shopping (or that's what they tell their husbands anyway, probably slugging cocktails at some fancy shopping mall). We got *Looks* when we entered. I think that's because one of us was a woman. "One quick coffee, use the loo and out" I hissed. Gorbals agreed. I wondered if it was called Papillon because most of the clientele were escaped convicts. 

The bartender/owner was friendly. It was clearly, to judge by the paraphernalia behind the counter, a Feyernoord supporters bar. Ajax supporters not welcome. The sort of place where a party could break out quite spontaneously, and where the Madammeke would put on a spread for somebody's birthday. Een echt stamcafé.  Gorbals showed his Celtic cap to the bar owner who seemed to approve. (He hates football but finds it a useful icebreaker). We spotted a first-floor window about 50 meters away where an Ajax banner was clearly visible. "Courageous", muttered Gorbals, sucking his teeth.

 

 

On our last evening i wanted a rijsttafel.  We had a couple of snifters beforehand on boat bar North End on the corner of Nordeinde and Rapenburg, and then to Surakarta recommended by our local contact, where we sat down to a veritable cornucopia of Indonesian dishes.  

Delft

It's like being in a picture postcard, all flower-festooned canal bridges, bicycles and that ghastly blue and white china everywhere.   Small enough to whizz in and out for a few hours on your way to somewhere else (home as it went).  On the main square in front of the ornate Stadhuis was an expo of teams of students from universities all over the world explaining and demonstrating their prototype hyperloop projects.  Fascinating.  European Hyperloop Week was being hosted by the University of Delft this year.  I spoke to a lad from a Queen Mary's College London who was envious of the other European universities who were receiving generous funding, unlike the post-Brexit research programmes.  The Dutch team on the next stand had a budget of 1.5m euros, the QM team had 8,000 quid.  Another Brexit benefit! 

It was outrageously hot that day.  At Markt 5 is a restaurant called De Sjees where we sheltered from the intense heat under the rear wall of the Stadhuis.   This is where I sampled my first Uitsmuiter.  It's a messy ham, cheese & egg on toast.  Gorbals had croquettes which he found disappointing.  He should have heeded the waitress's warning when he asked what they contained.  "Best not to know," she said. 

Uitsmuiter

Croquettes

The future of hyperloop

Found a great bookshop in Delft called Paagman, with an extensive English section. Gorbals found this very funny and informative book about the cloggies.

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the anti Delft.  Almost completely destroyed during the war (by the Germans, not by us, thankfully, otherwise I'd have felt obliged to spend all my time apologising), it has been rebuilt with an eye to modernity and creativity.  You could easily spend a week eating and drinking your way around Rotterdam, there is no shortage of restaurants, street food, bars and "coffee shops".  Although, oddly, very hard to find a fag shop.  

- Hotel M

We stayed in the trendy Citizen M hotel on the Oude Haven, right next to the cube houses.  It was all digital, you checked yourself in on laptops at the reception, and the rooms had a tablet by the bed where you controlled the lighting, the blinds, the curtains and the telly.  There was a decent bar where I had a cocktail one night.  The staff were super helpful and friendly, even though you actually had to do everything yourself. 

- Markthalle

This is known as Rotterdam's Sistine Chapel due to the artwork which covers the inside walls and ceiling.  The upside down U shaped building houses apartments within its walls, with windows that look down on the market.  Luckily it is a boho foodie market and not a proper fruit & veg market, otherwise the residents wouldn't get a wink of sleep.  There is a huge Chinese supermarket and many food outlets.   On Saturdays a traditional food market is held outside the Markthalle, where fruit, veg and massive amounts of cheese are sold.  

 

 

 

- Café Timmer & Melief Bender

Within 100m of each other on the Oude Binnenweg (120 and 134 respectively).  Two oldest bars in Rotterdam, although given Rotterdam was bombed to smithereens in 1940 I'm not sure how old that would be.

- Oude Haven

Sitting under the cube houses, the former fishing harbour is lined with bars and restaurants, all prettily lit up at night.  We walked the length of the harbourside and back and concluded we were the oldest people within a square kilometer.

- Bagels & Beans

Chain of pleasant breakfast places serving proper bagels as well as other breakfast options.   All over the Netherlands.  It became our mid morning meeting place, after Gorbals had dragged himself from his pit.

- Pho

Vietnamese restaurant & noodle bar in one of Rotterdam's three Chinatowns.

- Hotel New York

We didn't have time to explore the docks area by water taxi but have earmarked Hotel New York for a future visit for afternoon tea or a posh dinner.  

- Katendrecht

Rapidly gentrifying, the former red-light district of Rotterdam in the old docks area still hangs on to one of two vestiges of the seedy old days when prostitutes and opium dens enticed drunken sailors to their ruin.   Cafe "De Ouwehoer" (The Old Whore) was recommended by a former resident.  Now, perhaps sadly, it is listed as one of the 10 trendiest areas in Europe.   We didn't have time to visit but high on the list for next time.

- Cool

We discovered the Cool district on our last evening. It actually is cool, and is called Cool.  The Witte de Withstraat is wall to wall trendy restaurants and yoof. 

It appears the district has been called "Cool" since the 13th century! According to our old friend Wikipedia:  "The name Cool is first mentioned in 1280. In 1816, the independent municipality of Cool was annexed by the city of Rotterdam. During the Rotterdam Blitz in 1940, much of the district was destroyed, but some streets survived—including Oude Binnenweg and Witte de Withstraat."  Who knew?  

 

 

Breda

We stopped in Breda on the way up and managed to miss the whole town centre because we walked through the market where it was situated but were absorbed in looking at the market stalls and munching on kibbeling.  But we did happen upon the Stadspark which has a charming café called T-Huis.   On the way back we came in from the other side and discovered the canalside and the charming Grote Markt with its many cafés and restaurants.  Not to mention the Jumbo megasupermarket on the road back to Brussels (be still my heart).   

There is a Polish connection in Breda, and a Polish church and the biggest Polish military cemetery in the Netherlands, opened in 1963 with 151 graves of Polish soldiers who lost their lives liberating Breda in 1944.  In the park is a sculpture commemorating the Polish liberators.  

 

I was super impressed with the Netherlands and can't wait to go back as soon as the weather is more clement.  My Dutch might be up to having a proper conversation with someone by then.