In many ways, the bar where I first encounter Mechelen’s famed Gouden Carolus beer is not dissimilar to the hundreds of other ‘brown pubs’ that you find dotted around any Belgian city. Old, hand-painted beer advertisements adorn every wall, the lighting is dim enough to hide all manner of boozy indiscretions, and the mish-mash of old thrift store tables and chairs add a certain rakish charm. Like all of the other brown pubs, it is somewhat anachronistic, but in many ways, it isn’t.
Rather than being filled with middle-aged men huddled on bar stools, silently supping their Duvels or small glasses of Jupiler, the crowd here is a mix of young and old. Dishevelled students gather outside, smoking roll-ups on the tumbledown terrace overlooking the Dijle. I find myself squeezed in a corner on a rickety table, looking out into the street through Gouden Vis’ ornate, art nouveau window while sipping a Chouffe. I decided to head here after reading one travel writer declare it the best bar in Belgium. It’s a bold claim to make in a country that isn’t short of excellent pubs and, looking out onto the Vismarkt, I’m not even sure if it’s the best on this particular street.
The Vismarkt itself has seen a resurgence in recent years and has gone on to become a symbol of Mechelen’s resurgence as a hip, cultural hub of Flanders. The former fish market on the banks of the Dijle had become run-down and dilapidated since the hulking Lamot brewery on the opposite bank closed its doors in 1995 and the surrounding area a little unsavoury. Now, the Canals, bricked over for centuries to avoid the threat of cholera, have been reopened to the elements and a new floating walkway has turned the river Dijle into a valued thoroughfare again. The shell of the Lamot has been wrapped in floor to ceiling glass and smartly-dressed diners enjoy an evening meal in the Grand Café Lamot, part of the buildings new life as a cultural centre, restaurant and exhibition hall.
Across the water, De Gouden Vis is just one puzzle piece in the Vismarket’s transformation from dilapidated eyesore to bustling cafe quarter. Two upmarket hotels have opened – the Novotel and Mercure Vé – and from my window seat, each nearby cafe is packed with Mechelen’s young partygoers. Next door is Café Pilchard, De Gouden Vis’ sister pub aimed at the student crowd, and just across the street are the equally fantastic Pintxos and Cafe de Wei.
Soon I’m surrounded on all sides by 3 students, around the age of twenty, cigarettes resting above their ears, each of them becoming increasingly worse for wear as they knock back round after round of strong Trappist ale. I sit and watch them play a drinking game for a while before they eventually draw me into a conversation.
“Is this your first time in Belgium?”
I explain that it isn’t and that only recently, I was in Leuven. There’s an audible groan. “The thing with Leuven,” the oldest of the group explains, wagging his finger and almost spilling his drink, “Is that people talk about how great the beer is. Stella Artois? pfft. We know that Mechelen has better beer.”
Leuven has a long history of brewing and is home to AB Inbev, the largest brewery group in the world. Rightly or wrongly, it claims itself the beer capital of Belgium. However, such is regional rivalry, many cities in the Flanders region would argue otherwise. It seems that Mechelen is one such city.
Surrounded on all sides by larger cities – The university town of Leuven to the south, Brussels to the west and Antwerp to the North, all just 25 km away – it’s not surprising that the Mechelaars should suffer from a slight inferiority complex. Until recently Mechelen has been somewhat forgotten, at least by visiting tourists. Add to this the mocking, tongue in cheek nickname – Maneblussers – with which other cities in Flanders refer to Mechelen’s residents, then it is easy to see why.
Apocryphal or not, the story behind the nickname is that on a January night in 1687, St. Rumbold’s Tower was shrouded in mist. As an inebriated patron left an inn on the Grote Markt, he saw that the tower was on fire and immediately sounds the alarm. The whole city became panicked and the city council, with the mayor in the lead, started to organize an emergency response. Buckets of water were passed from hand to hand along the tower stairs, but before the first bucket reached the top, the moon shone through the mist and the reddish glow disappeared. The tower wasn’t on fire. The people of Mechelen had been trying to extinguish the glow of the moon. Even today, residents of Mechelen are known as Maneblussers, or moon extinguishers.
As I am contemplating minor regional feuds, in a movement much too nimble for his level of inebriation, my phone is snatched from my hand by one of the students and he quickly begins tapping away. I look at the note that he’s written; Westmalle Blonde, Barbar, Cornet, Carolus Tripel, Maneblusser.
“Here’s a list of beers. Try telling me Stella Artois is better than any of these.”
The next morning, I decided to take up the challenge and head across town to the Het Anker Brewery. One of Belgium’s oldest breweries, and certainly Mechelen’s most famous, Het Anker can trace its pedigree all the way back to 1471. Nuns from a Mechelen convent set up the Hospice de Beaune to treat those that were ill or near to death. Naturally, as the water at the time was such poor quality, they turned to a spot of on-site brewing to both treat and comfort their patients. In 1865, Louis van Breedam bought the site from the nuns and began modernising it for mass production. The brewery is now run by the 5th Generation of the Van Breedam family, Charles Leclef, who has continued to innovate, restoring the building, expanding their range of brews and even moving into whisky and sake production, using the beer as feed-stock for their own Gouden Carolus Single Malt.
Despite modernisation, during a tour of the brewery, you get a chance to see some of the older brewing equipment such as the three vast copper brew-kettles in the brew-room that date from after the Second World War as well as the wort cooling tanks on the breweries rooftop. We start in the old storehouse where we sample the hops, malt and spices used in Anker’s beers before working our way through a museum and showroom, outlining the breweries history.
The comes the part I’ve been waiting for; the tasting. We start with the beer that Het Anker is most well known for – the Gouden Carolus (or Golden Charles), named after Charles V, the Holy Roman who was said to enjoy imbibing a bit of Mechelsen Bruynen. It’s light but incredibly deep, hinting at flavours of caramel and figs. Typically you will find it in 2 varieties around Mechelen’s bars; Gouden Carolus Classic and Tripel, although the brewery pumps out a vast quantity of variations including the hoppy Hopsinjoor, as well as Christmas and Easter editions. We work our way through the 2 staple beers before I head next door to Het Anker’s wonderful onsite brasserie to try a bottle of the cheekily named Maneblusser over a plate of ribs.
Like with Het Anker, it’s the mix of old and new that make Mechelen stand out as a great city, one that is forward-thinking but still manages to retain much of its old-world charm and culture. The pubs are no different. All around the city’s Grote Markt, under the shadow of Saint Rumbold’s imposing tower, are a dozen or so brown pubs – the kind of cosy, dishevelled bolt holes that I love Belgium for – but one drinking spot stands out; the airy and modern Bar Makadam. While the old staples serve a great selection of Belgian beers, only Makadam focusses on small-batch, craft and specialised brews, with over 70 in their well-stocked fridges. I settle down at the shimmering, metallic bar and crack open a bottle of Jungle Joy, the 6.6% passion fruit and mango infused dubbel produced by the Brussels Beer Project, followed by En Stoemeling’s Hoppy Madame witbier.
I’m not staying to sample them all though. Later that evening, I find myself drawn back to the Vismarkt and De Gouden Vis. I can’t help but think that, for such a compact city, Mechelen has a dense concentration of fantastic drinking spots. These aren’t your run of the mill bars and by-the-numbers chains either. The city has an abundance of proper Flemish cafes oozing character.
Nearby on the Vismarkt is t’ Ankertje aan de Dijle, Het Anker’s city centre outpost. Just across the water is De Peton, a characterful rock bar located in the sixteenth-century building that once housed the Brouwerij Palm’s beer café. A few streets away you will find D’Hanekeef, Mechelen’s oldest pub where old men settle for the afternoon to peruse the newspaper and chat while working their way through the 50 different beers that populate the menu.
De Gouden Vis isn’t quite so relaxed. At 9 pm on a Saturday night, it’s already standing room only. I manage to find a stool, squeezing myself against a back wall beside a group of 3 middle-aged women sipping glasses of Gouden Carolus. They’re visiting on a girl’s weekend from Antwerp. “Are you here on your own?” one of them asks, turning her attention to me. I try to explain that I am pub-hopping around the city, hoping to sample as much of Mechelen’s beer as I can in the 48 hours I have here.
“No, no, no. If you want good beer, you have to come to Antwerp,” she sighs, before gently removing my phone from my hand and frantically entering a list of beers.
Where to Drink in Mechelen
Bar Makadam
Until relatively recently, the bar that is now ‘Makadam’ had possibly the longest name of any watering hole in Flanders; Als ik mijn ogen toedoe, ben ik in Honoloeloe, or in English, When I close my eyes, I’m in Honolulu. Since being taken over by David Aerts and Jonas Bosmans, this bar in the heart of the Grote Markt has become a beacon for craft beer lovers in a country that sometimes feels a little stuck in the past when it comes to specialised and modern brews. The bar stocks a fridge full of bottles from breweries such as the Brussels Beer Project, De la Senne, Troubadour, Keun, Vlier, Stroemelings, Triest, De Ranke, and Drie Fonteinen as well as having four taps with a rotating lineup. If you are going to drink anywhere in Mechelen, make a bee-line for Makadam.
Where: Grote Markt 11
When: Open Mon to Thurs: 11am – 12am. Friday & Saturday: 11am – 3am. Sun: 11am – 6pm.
Het Anker
Although many people visit Het Anker to take the fantastically informative brewery tour, the adjacent tap room and brasserie are a great place to sample the best of what Het Anker has to offer. Every one of the brewery’s beers is on offer here, from the classic Gouden Carolus and Maneblusser to some of their more specialised beers such as the whisky infused Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer Imperial Dark. There is also a distillery on-site, meaning you can sample Het Anker’s own whiskey and sake.
De Gouden Vis
De Gouden Vis is one of Mechelen’s best, and certainly one of its most popular, cafés. The 18th century ‘De Gulden Nobel’ has been a listed building since 1987, but by the time it gained its protected status, it was already known as De Gouden Vis, an art nouveau brown cafe with an outdoor terrace overlooking the Dijle with a view of the old Lamot Brewery.
Flea market chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and mismatched furniture add to the easygoing charm. It can get busy and a little more lively on an evening, when most of the younger patrons head over to the sister pub, Café Pilchard, next door so that they can party until the small hours.
Where: Nauwstraat 7
When: Mon to Fri: 11am – 12am. Sat: 10am – 12am. Sun: 2pm – 12am.
De Pekton
Café De Pekton has a rich history. Taking its name from the sixteenth-century building that once housed the Brouwerij Palm’s ‘beer café’, the cafe in its current form has only been open since February 2018 but has managed to retain much of its character and original interior. The pub hosts live music fairly regularly and when I visited on a cold Saturday night, the place was packed with people watching a pub rock cover band.
Where: 4 Van Beethovenstraat
When: Tues to Thurs & Sun: 10am – 2am. Fri & Sat: 10am – 4am.
t’ Ankertje aan de Dijle
’t Ankertje aan de Dijle, the city centre outpost of the Het Anker Brewery, is the best place in the city to try out Mechelen’s famed Gouden Carolus beer, once the preferred tipple of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, without going to the brewery itself. It’s a convivial, brown ‘discussion café located on the Vismarkt, serving all of the brewery’s beers, which it also sells in its bottle shop.
Where: Vismarkt 20.
When: Mon to Thurs: 3pm – 12am. Fri: 3pm – 12am. Sat: 12pm – 2am. Sun: 1pm – 8pm.
Bar Popular
Located in the city’s nightlife hub, the hip and upcoming Vismarkt, bar popular has more of a Spanish flavour than a Belgian one. Spirits – rum cocktails in particular – are the order of the day and you’ll find the place absolutely packed with revellers on a weekend evening.
Where: Vismarkt 1
When: Mon to Weds & Sun: 12pm – 1am. Thurs, Fri & Sat: 12pm – 4am
D’Hanekeef
Mechelen’s oldest cafe, D’Hanekeef as been around since the 1880s and has existed in its current form since the 1950s when these brown pubs and cafes were the hub of social life in the city. The building itself was once the chicken-farmers’ exchange and stored cockerel cages used in cockfighting, hence the walls covered in images of cocks. Even today, the pub retains much of its 50s charms such as traditional patterned floor tiles and beamed ceiling and you will see that its bar, serving over 50 different beers, it’s still very much a social space, filled with older gentleman relaxing with a newspaper or gossiping over a pint.
Where: Keizerstraat 8
When: Daily 9am – 4am
Unwined
If you’re looking for something a little different to beer, Unwined is a cosy, modern wine bar that is just a short walk from Saint Rumbold’s Tower. The passionate owners, Koen and Miriam, will be happy to advise you on your drink choices and you can even take a wine tasting course.
Where: Steenweg 22
When: Tues to Thurs: 5pm – 12am, Fri & Sat: 12 pm – 12am, Sun: 3pm – 10pm
Where to Stay in Mechelen
Mercure Vé
No hotel in Mechelen could be better located for a weekend of bar-hopping than the Mercure Vé. Situated right at the heart of the bustling Vismarkt, this former fish smokehouse from 1923 has been converted into a stylish and contemporary hotel, retaining many of its original architectural features.
Getting to Mechelen
Mechelen is easily accessible from Brussels, Leuven and Antwerp and is located just 25km from each of these cities. Trains leave Bruxelles-Midi frequently – often more than twice an hour – and the journey takes around 30 minutes.
