Category: Going out

My favourite bar: ‘Oud Arsenaal’

Ludo Joosen January 30, 2017

One of the really authentic bars in town is called ‘Oud Arsenaal’ (Old Arsenal) and is situated in the Maria Pijpelinckxstraat. In case you didn’t know: Maria Pijpelinckx was Rubens’ mother, so it shouldn’t surprise you you can find this bar in the neighbourhood of the Rubens House Museum.

It has been a bar ever since 1924 and the building itself dates back to early 19th century. The starting date of the bar can still be read in the inscription above the door. The shop front has these orange-brown coloured ceramic tiles and probably the interior dates back to 1932. In that year a permit was granted to enlarge the café and at that moment the art-deco interior was installed, with its brown and yellow floor tiles, and its walls covered with wooden benches, mirrors and wooden wainscoting.

When you enter the cafe, you make a trip through time, going back nearly a hundred years. In 2009 a search was held to look for really authentic public bars and ‘Oud Arsenaal’ was selected as one of the top-locations.

And another reason to go there: Steph, the landlord, has a really impressive choice of fine beers from all over the country and that at very affordable prices.

Oud Arsenaal

Maria Pijpelinckxstraat 14

Wed-Fri: 10:00-22:00

Sat-Sun: 07:30 – 19:30

Saturdays and Sundays a market (Vogeltjesmarkt) is being held in the immediate neighbourhood, that explains the early opening hours.

Eat and drink, Going out art déco, bar, beer, bier, bruine kroeg, café, choice, keuze, Kneipe, Wahl

A prolonged Chinese New Year

Ludo Joosen January 27, 2017

A tip for those who plan to stay in our city Feb 4th or 5th.

Jan 28th the Chinese New Year was celebrated in Chinatown in the Central Station area of the city. Especially Wednesday Feb 1st will be a noisy day as fireworks and crackers are going to drive away the evil demons. But as from this year this is not the end of celebrations: the following weekend ‘The Asian Lifestyle Group’ is staging a food festival under the name ‘Asia in Antwerp’.

The festival is staged in the Waagnatie, opposite the Red Star Line Museum and will be open on Sat 4th and Sun 5th of February, each day starting at 12:30 up till 21:00. A marketplace is created with authentic Asian goods, recipes,… Tour operators specialised in Asia will present their programs, workshops will be organised to teach you the little tricks to make perfect sushi’s or to cut fruit and vegetables to look like flowers or animals and kids can get initiated into yoga.

But that’s not all: there will be music, acrobacy, folklore… and as Sunday is the national holiday in Bali, a special ceremony will be held. Tickets are for sale and more information can be found on the organization’s website.

Eat and drink, Going out, News

Old and new go hand in hand

Ludo Joosen January 23, 2017

The Hoogstraat is a very lively shopping street where you will not find any of the international brands, but only local shops, eat houses and bars. Jacques Jordaens, one of the great baroque painters of the city was born here in the house which now bears the number 13, right next to one of the entrances to the Vlaaikensgang, a relict of sixteenth century Antwerp.

One of the antique shops in the Kloosterstraat

One of the eldest buildings in the Hoogstraat is situated right next to St-Jansvliet. It is the Saint-Julian’s Hospital or guesthouse. Pilgrims on their way to Compostella could stay there overnight and in fact, they still can, although the guest house is now situated on St-Jansvliet and offers a bit more comfort than the old building. The old chapel of the guesthouse today houses the Black Panther, one of the most prestigious art galleries in town presenting a wide range of contemporary artists from home and abroad.

And while you’re at it, if you continue walking south, you enter the Kloosterstraat. Here, for something like half a mile, you will find a lot of antique and vintage shops, one next to the other, with of course a coffe house, restaurant or bar in between.

Eat and drink, Going out, Shop antique, Jordaens, vintage

Favourite Bars

Ludo Joosen January 14, 2017

Hier alvast een paar van mijn favoriete cafeetjes. Als je op de naam klikt kan je meer informatie bekijken (voor zover die al aanwezig is).

– Oud Arsenaal
– De Duifkens
– ‘t Waagstuk
– Kulminator
– Groote Witte Arend

Eat and drink, Going out

Where to eat?

Ludo Joosen January 11, 2017

Whatever your tastes, you will surely find a nice restaurant in Antwerp: traditional Flemish/Belgian cuisine, French cuisine on both haute cuisine and bistrot level, Oriental food, all types of Mediterranean food,… You name it, we got it.

My favourite Italian restaurant is called ‘Verona’, in the shadow of the cathedral on the Oude Korenmarkt. A street with a great many restaurants, but Verona to me stands out. It is usually very busy, but the kitchen is well organised, so you don’t have to wait too long for your meal to arrive. If you want a real high class cuisine in this neighbourhood, be sure to visit ‘Sir Anthony Van Dyck’ in the Vlaaikensgang, a remnant of 16th century Antwerp.

Another area where you will find a great many restaurants is Vlaamse Kaai and Waalse Kaai in the south of the city. ‘Bizie Lizie’ (Vlaamse Kaai 16) is a place where I have never been disappointed. They are best known for their traditional French/Belgian cuisine.

Of course also the area around Central Station has a great many restaurants. Real Chinese food can be found in China Town (Van Wesenbekestraat). Stationstraat has many different flavours, and so does the De Keyserlei. Most of these restaurants serve decent food for reasonable prices.

A final fine food area is Zurenborg, especially up and around the Dageraadplaats.

Going out

City folklore pt. 1

Ludo Joosen January 9, 2017

The very first Monday after Twelfth Night (Jan. 6) is a very special day for Antwerp. It is called Verloren Maandag (Lost Monday) and is accompanied by free sausage or apple rolls in popular bars. The origins for this feast are very old and nobody really knows what is its origin.

One theory says that the Sunday after Twelfth Night was the day on which new city officials took oath, and on the next day everybody took free, so it was a Lost Monday. A variation on this story tells us that the traditional guilds held festivities for the New Year of the Monday after Twelfth Night. The guild members went from door to door to pass on the dean’s wishes to the population of the town, and of course they also had to call on the doors of inns. To keep the guests a little longer inside and promote the drinking, the patrons offered them a hot salty combination of bread and (cheap) sausage.

Specifically for Antwerp there is a story that it was a tradition for people working in the harbour that on this day they were allowed to eat and drink freely. Of course the bosses chose for food that filled the stomachs in a cheap way and so the traditional sausage roll was invented.

Still another theory says sausage rolls were invented by butchers. They usually had a lot of leftovers from the preceeding festive days and turned these in a roll and to disguise the meat was not that fresh anymore, wrapped it in a dough clothing.

Nowadays sausage rolls can be bought at the baker’s all year round, but on Verloren Maandag the showcase window of every bakery store is filled with the popular rolls.

Should you happen to drop in to a bar on Lost Monday, don’t be surprised if the landlord offers you a hot sausage roll! Cheers!

Eat and drink, Folklore, Going out sausage rolls, tradition, verloren maandag, worstenbrood

Dageraadplaats – off the beaten track

Ludo Joosen January 9, 2017

A very lively neighbourhood with a lot of bars and restaurants can be found at Dageraadplaats, which is the heart of Zurenborg. It may be little known by tourists, but is frequented by locals. This is an area where people of different origins live together, and it shows in the types of restaurants you can find at and around this little square.

The square can easily be reached by public transport (Line 11 has a stop at the square). Moreover, just a few steps away is Cogels-Osylei, a city quarter that was developed in the era of art nouveau and Jugendstil. Fortunately practically all of the houses in this street, and the sidestreets leading up to it, have been protected as monuments. It surely is a unique sight.

Soon I will tell you more about this fascinating area.

Going out, Outdoors bar, café, Cogels-Osy, cogels-osylei, Kneipe, neighbourhood, quarter, restaurant, viertel, volks, wijk, Zurenborg

Red and Blue renamed Cargo Club

Ludo Joosen January 7, 2017

Antwerp has a very lively night-life, with two very popular discotheques bordering north of the historical city centre.

In the middle of the red light quarter (Schipperskwartier) you’ll find “Café d’Anvers”. Situated in Verversrui the building once housee the popular cinema Ritz, where the poor of the neighbourhood used to hang out the whole afternoon no matter which movie was on the program to save on heating costs in their two room flats, but now welcomes trendy crowds of visitors every weekend.

A bit further on in the Lange Schipperskapelstraat, “Red and Blue” can be found. This last one was very popular with the holebi-population of Flanders. From the middle of January 2017 on, “Red and Blue” will be renamed “Cargo Club” and cater for all kinds of public. Every now and then special holebi-events will be staged under the old “Red and Blue” logo.

Source (text and picture): GVA

Going out, News Café d'Anvers, disco

Saturday Night at the Movies

Ludo Joosen January 5, 2017 1 Comment

In Belgium movies are shown in the original language and are subtitled for the local public, so there’s no reason why you should not go to the movies on Saturday night.

Antwerp has always had a fascination for cinema. Already early in 1896 performances were offered to an eager public, barely months after the first performances by the Lumière brothers in Paris. Already in 1908 Antwerp had its own cinemas and in the era immediately before and immediately after World War II the city housed more than 100 cinemas. But then television came and cinema lost much of its appeal and in 1973 the main cinema mogul in Antwerp went bankrupt.

Fortunately the multiplex took over and Antwerp now has two large cinema centres: one in the Central Station area (historically the place where the main cinemas were situated) run by UGC, the other north of the city along Noorderlaan, on a former GMC-plant run by Kinepolis. Both offer a varied programme of mostly English spoken movies.

Independent productions are shown in Cartoon’s, which is situated in Kaasstraat, bordering on the quays of the river Scheldt.

Going out