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Location: Korenmarkt 21, 2800 Mechelen
Venue Type: Belgian Café / Beer Specialists
Year of Inscription: 2025
Map
Description
Gallery
| EBG Rating: | 8.2/10 |
| Choice/ Quality of Drinks | ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Very high quality epicurean selection of specialist Belgian beers including on tap, and featuring local brews from independents. |
| Style/ Décor | ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Narrow bar with personalised/lived in appearance and genteel café bar/pub seating to the rear surrounded by brewing ephemera. Well renowned wobbly staircase to the upstairs. |
| Atmosphere/ Character | ❤️❤️❤️❤️ A long standing bar with a cult audience and cast of regulars, a sense of the serene to be drinking with a classic music soundtrack in more of a hushed environment during the afternoon. In the evening conversation takes over a little more but this is not your typical party venue, more a man’s idea of a relaxing, cosy pub. |
| Amenities/ Events | ❤️❤️❤️ Simple food, snacks, limited outdoor seating, takeaway |
| Value For Money | ❤️❤️❤️ Typical prices for the city centre, but fair and reasonable. |
| Description | For over 40 years, Gerard Walschaerts has owned and run this classic Belgian café, renowned for forwarding the best of Belgian beers in the early days of the scenes revival in the 80s and 90s. These days you’ll find a charming, characterful pub which begins with a narrow bar area and its row of stools, often occupied by the regulars, and genteel café seating to the rear. The soundtrack of classical music accompanies the ‘gentlemen of leisure’ concept well. This is not a place where the day to day is about throwing parties every week, but to contemplate the sublime in a reverential way. On that score, it may split opinion. What certainly won’t do is the high quality array of beers both on tap and in bottles, including many specifically sourced from independent brewers in the local area. This really brings forth not only Belgian beers wonderful variety but depth and curiosity. Gerard has seen it all and upstairs you will see a presentation of his ageing appearance, a living legend in his 60s and he promises another decade at least. (Added March 2025) |
