bruin café

A large-ish bar with a small pavement café that attracts a well heeled, fairly trendy crowd in the evenings. The beer list is rather uninspiring but then it’s not trying to cater to the same people who would seek out, say, Moeder Lambic. It’s also a music venue and there’s a small stage. Projected onto the back wall is a large photo of Kafka and what I think is an extract from his writing (in German) projected onto it. (Visited 2 October 2012).

Pretty sterile atmosphere. Came here on a whim when I saw it and recognized the name from a Brussels guidebook. I went in the day time and it seemed like a bit of a dive (in a good way), but I hear it’s pretty cool in the evenings. The beer list was better than I was expecting when I sat down, but it was still nothing to write home about.

The last place that we visited when here on Saturday 17th December 2011. We went here only because it had been mentioned in the ’Around Brussels in 80 Beers’ book. Otherwise this may well have been a place that we would have inadvertantly bypassed without a second glance. This was one of those rare places where you go to the bar yourself to get served and the offerings were quite decent with Duchess du Bourgogne de Flandres and De la Senne Zinnebiron on tap, though the former was unavailable on our visit. There was some nice piano music and jazz sounds. We were sat in reasonably close proximity to a gentleman who clearly had some mental health issues which understandably some people found difficult to deal with and his rantings caused a few to move, though he wasn’t really any bother and it was nice to see that they cafe tolerated him, I work in a mental health hospital and to be honest this chap was little cause for concern. The Zinnebir was lovely, the place was busy, though sitting close to the door it was a bit too cold for Loz. Like this place and glad to have popped in there. Btw it seemed very reasonable pricewise. I never checked out the bottle list but looking around at others there seemed to be a variety of different bottles on tables.

A great bar with an ok selection. Inside is classic wooden paneled with some bench seating. Full of atmosphere with a big mix of people at all times of the day. Selection might not be the biggest in Brussels, but there is Zinnebir on draft and it tastes beautiful. Also on tap, a couple of pils and when I was there Duchesse de Bourgogne. Not sure how many bottles, but some good stuff and some of the regular stuff you would expect to find. They have Drie Fonteinen Kriek in bottles and the usual trappists. If you are hunting rare beers, better to go somewhere else, but if you are looking for a great drinking experience, pop in and have a Zinnebir and enjoy the ambiance.