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The Belgians really love their food. Brussels’ proximity to its gastronomic neighbour Lilles, just half an hour by train, seems to have spurred the city on to strive for higher culinary standards. Per capita there are more Michelin stars in this city than any other in Europe, and while you could say this is the EU Gravy train in action, there is something so naturally enlightened about their attitude to food that the sweet scent of chocolate and waffles gently wafting along the impeccably clean streets in Brussels is like a first embrace.
Indeed the term café originated here, in the Medieval days that preceded Breughel’s legendary “hunters in the snow” painting, when hearth fires were prohibited in houses during the summer months to prevent catastrophic blazes in the wooden community, there was one person in each village charged with keeping a fire and hot water going.
In time this person started providing drinks for those coming to fetch water and warmth and so the café was born. Today Brussels offers such a rich and delicious variety of sweet and savoury, beyond the stereotypical moules frites and chocolate boxes, from utterly exquisite chocolate pralines at to the most succulent dos de cabaillaud at Lola on Place du Grand Sablons, you could be forgiven for wanting to gorge your way round the city.
However Brussels has many other attributes that perfectly counterbalance this, such as a gently rolling geography that gives the boulevards and streets that interlace like Dentelle de Brughes a delightful incline for meandering. What’s more their impeccable taste also extends to an expert appreciation for fine art, design and antiques that is manifest in a living gallery of boutiques worth travelling to in their own right. In this sense one of the only decisions you really need to make in advance is where to stay, and in terms of location – for its proximity to the train station Bruxelles Midi – to the fantastic array of walks through the Antique, Haut Couture and Museum districts – is the Sofitel Le Louise.
You can always tell the quality of a hotel by its concierge. Greeting us at the top of the escalator upon our arrival was Concierge Mariano, the kind of character who responds instantly to any enthusiasm with an anecdote: our reaction to the beautiful interpretation of lace on the lobby wall made of pale resin backlit with LEDS illicited a story about the women of Brughes walking through the streets with scented lace to their noses to mask the smells. Today the cities of Belgium are more like an emporium of scents, and beyond the check-in desk is an eccentrically flavoured welcome tea selection wafts invitingly.
The Sofitel Le Louise is unlike any other I have visited; its dark walls are hung with rotating – at the moment a Vietnamese performance photographer – all in keeping the hotel’s lightly surrealist theme. There is something very comforting about a place that does not take itself too seriously. The particular atmosphere of Le Louise makes it the preferred hotel for businessmen travelling alone in the week as much as young couples and families using it for a base to explore the city.
Sadly the hotel’s most celebrated feature – its generous outdoor terrace one of Brussels most popular venues for lunch– was too cold for us to enjoy. However Concierge Mariano made sure we were booked into an array of excellent lunch and dinner venues, such as the Michelin starred Les Petits Oignons where we indulged in mouthwatering steak tartar, mixed in front of us, washed down with Pinot Noir and completed with a zesty orange crepe suzette.
If good cooking begins with highest quality ingredients, then this humble little eatery is truly deserving of its accolade. Its situation is ideal for the perfect after dinner walk past the 48-stone figurines illuminated on plinths that line the gated exterior of the Place de Petites Sablons built in 1879. Looming out of the night like weird seraphs they seem to represent the ideal of unity in diversity (they show the 48 professions) all their individual characteristics hewn out of the same stone.
Perhaps it is the melting pot of cultures that makes Brussels so cultured in its tastes. The Flemish speakers and the French speaking Walloons co-exist in a bi-lingual society that is at once proud of its individual heritage and accepting of the other. The name for those of mixed heritage is Zinneke – the chef at Les Petits Onions, the maître d at Lola and indeed Sofitel’s walking encyclopedia of a concierge all refer to themselves as such. The cityscape itself, made up of a number of smaller villages that have eventually been absorbed into the whole, is a series of clearly defined zones that each has their unique characteristics whist still retaining their essential Brussels je ne sais quoi.
At the weekend the Place du Grand Sablons is transformed into an antique market that is unrivalled in any city centre, bar perhaps Nice. However, weekdays still present ample opportunity to find ancient treasures. With two bedroom apartments in this area going for under a quarter of a million euro it is possibly one of the best value for money districts left in Europe. Should you be that way inclined you might stop into Flamant for all your essential furnishings – its central China Blue walls set off the taupe and beige coloured furniture – begging for some old masterpieces to bring it all to life.
This is the perfect district for “chiner” or “fouiller” (browse or riffle as is the local term), but before you do step into the Notre Dame du Sablon for its brilliant stained glass windows have little rival and sing with cobalt blue, sunset orange and ruby red. However it is the monochrome part of the cathedral, in homage Notre Dame du Sablon that takes the prize. White marbled sculptures pulse with light against black lacquer walls above a pixilated black and white tiled floor.
Galleries line the streets of this district and offer wealth of choice for the first time buyer and the connoisseur alike, in addition to finding the perfect baroque frame to set it off. Next to Flamant is the wonderful Salblon Antiques Centre which sells everything from ornate chandeliers to Chinese vases. Philippe Dengs on 1 Place du Grand Sablons is bursting with objects of European art from 1900-2000, and the Zinda Gallery has an incredible selection of oriental carpets.
Past the Jewish Museum at the lower side of the place is another antique emporium where you will find the most eccentric array of finishing touches from the head and neck of several trophy kills and to a stack of gold gilt frames, grand piano, antler and murano chandeliers and even the shiny red and white horse escaped with Mary Poppins from the merry go round. Shopping in Brussels is surreal.
In this sense Patrick Roger’s shop on the corner of the Place des Petits Sablons is the apotheosis of what this district represents – the ultimate fusion of artist and artisan of taste. What is most alluring about his gallery is that the actual chocolates on offer are created with the utmost simplicity of purpose – for consumption – while his chocolate sculptures give the gallery its matchless aesthetic and intoxicating scent. Bold blocks of chocolate, opaque as ebony, have been worked into King penguins that huddle in the shop window – a surreal and welcome contrast to the chintzy window displays of competitors.
Should you be looking for heirlooms on a much smaller scale, this area is awash with trendy jewellery boutiques from Din Vhan to the independent jewellery designer and goldsmith Monica Kudlik. Tucked away on 1 Impasse St Jacques her one off pieces are miniature sculptures from an architect of stones. This alley also represents the city’s historic link to the Congo – which the infamous King Leopold sequestered as his garden – and there you can find some of the finest African Art dealers in Europe.
There in the window of the Congo Gallery is the prize – the kind of antique you could build a whole room around – a piece that has been dragged from pillar to post and somehow found its way here into this obscure little ally in the middle of the European Union. Taking my treasure back to the Sofitel Le Louise I have never been so grateful for a well appointed bed – which I did not leave until the following morning. Merci Sofitel!
by Nico Kos Earle
Rooms start from £93.00 per room per night at Sofitel Le Louise, Brussels