The establishments behind Antwerp’s bustling outdoor terraces run the gamut, but the common theme is easy to guess in a country of 1,600 beers and 800 year long brewing tradition. From 1920’s style jazz cafes to traditional beer pubs to specialty beer cafes like Kulminator and Bier Central, some offering a narrow selection of tasty and mostly local beers by a handful of monastic breweries and abbeys, others serving a broader menu of exceptional ales, cidery lambics, a local specialty, and high alcohol content artisanal beers produced by Belgium’s 160 breweries – wheat, blond, brune, red-dark, dark-brown, dubbel, and triple – of sweet, bitter and aromatic variety, each brand served in its proper signature goblet, snifler or tulip style glass. Funky art on exposed brick walls, wood and brass bars, fragments of busy street life captured through latticed garage door storefronts create a democratic, inviting atmosphere. Along the way, one occasionally finds places like Salon de The Claude, an overly cute patisserie on the square in front of the Church of St Charles Borromeo, and a classy version of NYC’s Alce’s Tea Cup, serving tea in china tea pots, breads, tea sandwiches, and macaroons. Vast stretches of cafe and pub terraces are also found in the Zuid and Zurenborg areas, these are fully autonomous, slightly more local and authentic, and deserve full credit and attention when exploring the area, visiting a cultural establishment or after a destination dinner in the neighborhood.
Antwerp stands ready for the most demanding of caffeine snobs. This city does not peddle its caffeine to the hipster generation indiscriminately, and does not over season its offerings with Geek Speak. To be sure, single origins, micro roasts, specialty pour overs, and overdesigned espresso gear are all very much a part of gourmet coffee experience here. But Antwerp purveyors of our favorite everyday staple just seem more casual about how they dispense it – surrounded in equal measure by fragments of cool but useless store fronts, stylish objects, and pretty people – all organically fitting into the overall mosaic. Most small cafes in Antwerp are not that different – Amici Coffe and Books on Kammenstraat fits this theme – and would not look out of place in New York’s Chelsea, West Village or Lower East Side. People seem to like Normo on the corner of Minderbroedersrui and Minderbroederstraat in the middle of the city’s oldest antique dealer areas and next to Flemish archives, it is close to Antwerp’s most famous churches, St Charles Borromeo. In the Wilder Zee traffic free fashion area, Desire de Lille, a 115 year old tea room and takeout shop famous for its signature Lacquemant, waffles and doughnuts, is still a fixture, its location on Schrijnwerkersstraat, a narrow street on the edge of the fashion district running between the KBC tower on Meirbug just blocks E of Groenplaats, and Lombardenvest could not be better. The perfectionist Sergio Herman and Studio Piet Boon, Jane Antwerp’s Michelin star chef and its architect designer, both Ducth, are also behind the newer Frites Atelier. Not your traditional chips from Antwerp’s Fritkot Max or Chez Vincent or Haute Friture, this ritzy but inviting corner store is Antwerp’s location of this famous purveyor of decadent and imaginative potato and stew based street food served with sauces designed by Sergio himself, it is located a block and a half down from Desire de Lille – the same street happens to change into Korte Gasthuisstraat along the way – next door to Mary Chocolatier and on the same block as Pierre Marcolini. Maurice Coffee & Knits in Cogels-Osylei is a good option when in the area. Countless bakeries are found in the Zuid including Buchbar, a concept bookstore and cafe.
Foodie scene is on the rise too – no surprise, this is one of culinary Europe’s best endowed countries, and arguably one where the chance of going wrong with a meal is among the lowest. No reason to go after Michelin stars when the baseline of local food establishments is so good. The vast pedestrian area between Groenplatz and the Cathedral on the East and Scheldt on the West and North of the fashion district – along Reynderstraat, Grote Pieter Potstraat and Hoogstraat, Suikerrui and Oude Koornmarkt – is lined with a continuous string of casual – and somewhat touristy – restaurants and cafes of all styles, ranging from the traditional and the mainstream to the ultra-stylish, and ultimately, the bizarre. Pasta-Hippo-Vino is a rather inviting shabby chic casual restaurant on Oude Koornmarkt – it is closer to the ultra-stylish, and is a good place despite its profoundly generic name and shamelessly central location just a block away from the Cathedral and the Stadhuis. A couple more stand out – De Groote Witte Arendt off Reynderstraat a block from Platin-Moretus Museum, this restaurant surprises with its perfect stew, fries, and Italianate interior courtyard with picnic style high tables and long benches, and t’Fronius on the corner of the same block, two houses down on Reynderstraat. I would not overlook Het Vermoeide Model, an old townhouse right next to the Cathedral of Our Lady with multiple levels of seating including the roof top where the French-Belgian food itself is more than satisfying, and the sound of heels on the cobblestones below and of carillon bells of the ornate belfry next door add to the experience of practically dining in the cathedral. Le Zoute Zoen can be a convenient stop for a nice meal on the way between Grote Markt and St Paul’s church. Right in the oldest antique area behind St Charles Borromeo church on Sint Katelijnevest is de Godevaart, a beautiful restaurant in a patrician townhouse setting behind a classy storefront, and one of the best in Antwerp. Velazquez on Steenhouwersvest at Korte Ridderstraat is a charming restaurant, artful and welcoming, ambiance and food are both excellent, conveniently located next to Gunter Watte chocolates and a block from the Platin Moretus Museum. Dome, a classy Zurenborg establishment not far from Cogels-Osylei street combines almost theatrical Belle Epoque interior under a ribbed dome from the 1890’s with beautifully prepared modern dishes. Further afield and across town, Het Pomphuis on the outer edge of Eilandje ought to be one of the most eclectic restaurant spaces, its roof deck, its multiple interior levels, seating on the walkway platforms and the machine hall all illuminated by tall arched windows, it is housed in the 1918 vintage pumphouse, one of Europe’s largest at the time, built to run centrifugal pumps to drain the dock to service the oceangoing ships.
Antwerp’s best restaurants tend to deliver on their responsibility as residents of its buildings – they add vivacity and character to the city, amplifying, reflecting, and benefiting from the richness of its built environment. Jane Antwerp, a two Michelin star establishment by master chef Sergio Herman – who ran 17th best restaurant on the list of the World’s Top 50 and now commands attention as a TV celebrity and an author of hard to get large format coffee table books celebrating his technical precision in presentation – is in turn hyper-publicized as one of the world’s best and – whether or not reservation lead time is still three months, not the easiest place to get into – a must if you wish to take the pulse of local gastronomy and creativity. An impeccably designed venue at the top of the city’s dining scene – set in a 19th century military hospital chapel SE of the city center, the interior only selectively restored, parts of it sealed to instead preserve their dilapidated and peeling but authentic and understated character – and an ingenious architectural adaptation of a former place of worship into a temple to haute cuisine. Its kitchen is placed in the apse section of the chapel where the altar used to be, in full view but – silenced for quiet viewing pleasure of its clientele – behind a soundproof wall of glass. Casual if not cartoonish secular images and food & wine scenes have replaced the 500 original stained glass panels but its massive windows important display continuity with the building’s original purpose. The centerpiece lighting fixture, made up of 150 steel rods each capped with a crystal globe, is somehow superficially reminiscent – if only in the way it fills the central space – of the chandelier in the newly refurbished lobby of NYC Public Theater, known as the Shakespearean machine, a giant static elliptical ceiling fan made up of 37 blades, one for each of his plays, each embedded with over 3,000 LEDs, each capable of streaming the full text of one of his plays, and each programmable to choose from over 800,000 words of Shakespearean repertoire to showcase changing passages extracted from his texts. While Jane Antwerp’s luminaire is not as inventive – like most chandeliers, it naturally lacks embedded intelligence to direct curated literary text messages – this Lebanese-designed 800 kg chandelier is photogenic, striking, unifying and central to making dining under its 38 ft high ceilings a pleasant experience. Jane Antwerp makes a statement with its bold design and transformation of space as much as with its food, art here goes beyond chef’s counter and your plate and becomes a part of the broader experience.
The same attention to detail that permeates everything in Antwerp is felt in its artisanal beer and fine chocolate, both without a doubt among Europe’s best – maximum content, minimum fluff, beautiful presentation, exquisite flavors. Praline, truffle, and chocolate shops are everywhere – infinitely better and less expensive than in Zurich and possibly Torino – the Chocolate Line is easily the most stunning of them all, located on the ground floor of the fine 18th century Rococo Paleis Op De Meir, the Royal Residence on Meir, its inventory by Dominique Persoone, a master chocolatier for the Three Michelin Star chefs and the only chocolatier with a Michelin Star of his own, will shock with its selection of 45 flavors. Where else can you choose among chocolates stuffed with puffed rice, matcha, wasabi, or sake? dark chocolate with lemongrass, cilantro, beetroot, or chili? saffron and curry? and how do you choose between fried onions pralines and sundried tomatoes and black olives stuffed dark chocolates? I recall buying a small cooler to make sure the wild assortment of chocolates with esoteric fillings I purchased there preserves its freshness during my upcoming four day business trip to Amsterdam before it gets to my kids in NY. While at the Paleis, don’t miss the courtyard visible through the the opulent entrance archway, if in search of a place to stop for an espresso or a champagne look no further than the Cafe Imperial right in front of you. The ubiquitous, and good, Leonidas store is never too far, but pass by Mary Chocolatier, an outlet of the Brussels institution, or the nearby Pierre Marcolini store, or Sjokolat to quickly replenish (but don’t linger), or Gunther Watte with its cheerful displays and chandeliers – most of the chocolatiers are in the colorful quadrant West of Meir, South of the Cathedral, and closer to the Scheldt. Also recommended is Nello on the small square facing the entrance to the Cathedral and Goossens Chocolatier two blocks S of Stadtpark between Zuid and Zurenborg districts. This city is a mecca for everything small, refreshing, boutiquey and artisanal – right in the spirit of fine detailing – its street food, whether its Brussels or Liege style waffles or the oliebol fried doughnut, its density of cafe terraces, and its restaurant scene will equally inspire, and make an aimless walk that much more enjoyable.
