http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/ Welcome to Been there. Your tips on the places you know - that you love, live in or have just visited - are what make this guide. http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35076 Jean-Claude and Christiane’s rum bar behind Place Sablon is a loving homage to several years spent in the French Antilles: banana plants, banana leaves, unobtrusive steel pan music and a glowing fruit-adorned bar. There is a food menu that features recipes from Martinique, Réunion, Guadeloupe and Mauritius, but more than anything it features rum.
But first, Christiane suggests I try an aperitif. She hands me the drinks menu and leaves me to peruse it for some while. There are 250 cocktails to choose from: enough for weeks (years?) of cocktail drinking.
While we sip our delicate creations and allow the rum to creep up on us, Jean-Claude is cooking. Not the intriguingly-named “poisson à la sauce chien” this time; but parrotfish in a creole sauce of lime and coconut milk, and the same fish prepared in absinthe. Not only do these turn out to be delicious, but it is also the first time I’ve eaten such a photogenic fish.
Our chef is an experimenter. He tells us he’s currently trying out a variation of the staple deep-fried Belgian croquette, but with chicken inside and accompanied by a mango sweet and sour sauce. “I tried it out on my friends”, he says. We nod encouragingly and say it sounds good. “Yes, that’s what I thought”, he muses.
Later on Friday and Saturday nights, Jean-Claude sheds his chef’s clothes for something more comfortable, and joins in with the group of musicians and drums in the corner. Fridays and Saturdays from around 10:30pm is the time to pitch up: there’s no need to eat, just pick a cocktail (at random?) and make the most of it all. A place that should appeal to everybody!]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35076 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35075 We are generally young, cradling glass shakers protectively as we huddle around copper- topped tables. Meanwhile, the pulsing 90s dance mix is discouraging us from lapsing into conversation (even on a Monday), and why would we want deep conversations anyway while the blackboard has a list of around 40 cocktails to peruse, a twitchy dancing barman, and the television in the corner, inexplicably showing an evening chat show with my least favourite person on French channels, Laurent Ruquier. Every day between 20:00 and 23:00 except the day of rest, Coaster offers the appealing prospect of two 10cl or 15cl shakers for the price of one - it’s Happy Hour seemingly for most of the time the bar is open, or at least the hours when you’re most likely to want to frequent it. Well, I exaggerate: I haven’t yet hung out here until 6am! But I have slunk into the office wearing my hangover in a secret smile. Like a proper self-respecting Belgian bar, Jupiler is on tap. And of course the cocktails (be they mojitos, jet sets or teddy bears) are generous and colourful. And definitely not wimpish.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35075 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34627 For too long this historic bar had wallowed in its own smoky grime, trading on its reputation of years of epic chess matches, rumours of original tiled bathrooms, and its most famous customer, René Magritte. Coming back I’m astonished at the transformation: it’s almost too new, and so shiny that Magritte would probably not recognise it. It’s certainly no longer a place where I can imagine any scruffy artist at the window trying to sell paintings. I haven’t yet spotted any chess players, either.
It took a private Dutch investor and some regional subsidies to finally save this listed building from leaks and bring it up to modern standards. Sitting in here you feel like a drinker in the first class lounge on the Titanic. I’m told by one of the waiters that Magritte used to sit in the right hand window viewed from outside - in any case, that table is always occupied! Drink one - drink three - but I think the food is better elsewhere - best to head next door for that (or try one of the many other restaurants nearby).]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34627 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34150 When he is not on tour, they are joined by whiskered virtuoso violinist Roby Lakatos , who keeps us all transfixed with his nimble bow work and finger plucking frenzy, while my poor tapping feet can barely keep up. In Lakatos’ hands the violin is variously a percussion instrument, a guitar and mandolin, and he weaves traditional gypsy tunes and then surprises us all with a variation of “La vie en rose”. A good selection of wines is available by the glass or bottle, and there are tapas and desserts so you won’t go hungry. You can be sure that everyone: staff, players, customers, folk dancer, will be having a good time.
If you’re too early for the concert soak up a beer – and witness Brussels’ Bohemian, alternative side at bar Le Murmure, no.18.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34150 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32909 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32909 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32083 References to Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, fraying momentoes and blues music wrapping you in a cocoon: here it is personal, like a bedroom left behind in a family home and not touched since.
The jukebox will accompany your evening, when it’s working. Likewise Fakir Hindou, the fortune
telling box on the bar, might provide an erratic prognosis of your future for 20 cents. Two attempts produced the same result: “everything will go according to your wishes”. I’m not sure it’s a good thing to have everything you want!
Booze n’Blues has been family-run for the last 13 years. The owner lives upstairs. Downstairs you could almost imagine yourself somewhere in rural America. But the owner has never been. “There’s a meeting of blues fans in Los Angeles every year”, his sister tells me. "I’d love to send him there, but he doesn’t like flying.”]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32083 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32013 Delecta is another of my favourite small Brussels bars, an intimate after-work venue both in summer and winter, where you can share bottles of wine and plates of antipasti or huddle round the stove when it’s cold. There is a good selection of beer and light meals: more interesting variations on the ubiquitous croque monsieur, quiches and lasagne. Thursday evenings host the popular “les apéros
du Delecta”, complete with DJ.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32013 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/31345 not fond of the sweet fruit wines).]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/31345 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/30994 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/30994 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/30704 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/30704 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/14893
Join the pretty boys of Brussels and their friends to see six-feet-plus drag queens strut their stuff on the tiny bar to classic French and Euro-disco hits until the wee hours.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/14893 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/14719 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/14719 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/14700
Two huge dance floors heave with glistening muscles whilst the two darkened floors upstairs heave with an altogether raunchier activity.

This is definitely not what I had expected from Brussels. The club is only a short walk from the Eurostar terminus or a short taxi ride to the four and five-star hotels which offer excellent value.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/14700 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3936
It's best to have a meeting place in case you get lost as the crowds are thick and it's easy to misplace friends in the happy chaos. Drink prices are average for Brussels (ie cheaper than most expat bars).]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3936 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3935
Best to check out the website to stay in touch with events, but events are regularly advertised. Seeing Bukem play there last year was seriously wicked and the club itself is well known as one of the places to be for ravers in Brussels.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3935 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3788 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3788 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3785
Amazing cocktails, friendly staff and clientele, the bar is open until dawn every day. A slice of glamour in the city centre and away from the scrum of tourists and locals in the nearby bars of Saint-Gery.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3785