bruin café

A friendly neighbourhood bar with a short but adequate beer list which includes several local bottles. In Brussels, where 80% of the population speak French (it’s an island of francophones in a mainly Flemish region), it’s unusual to find a bar like Merlo where most people are speaking Dutch. It’s quite basic and fairly bare but offered us a warm welcome on a very stormy day in October. It’s away from the main touristy area, on an old quay now partly filled in and lined with fish restaurants and market stalls. (Visited 3 October 2012).

Small and friendly bar in the Ste-Catherine area, popular among Flemish locals but welcoming to all. Short but solid beer list features beers from Senne, Boon, Beersel and Belgoo, with an eye for the hoppy. Not a lot of space, unless you count the alleyway where most customers are drinking and smoking anyway. There are little ledges out there for setting your beer down. Good place to grab a drink before or after dinner in the neighborhood. Good prices for Brussels, and much more personality than those cookie-cutter Nicolay bars that the hipsters seem to prefer.