I didn’t go back to Brussels for 12 years. I used to live there when I was young and gloriously flunked out of college, after an epic Summer of intemperance and vice on the roof of the legendary Petite Rue des Bouchers madhouse, leaving friends and an astronomical Belgacom bill behind.



JC, Waffles and Magritte. Brussels, in a nutshell.


Cut to 2006, when i finally returned for a weekend in old BXL with Anis; we had just been to Istanbul and Amsterdam with Veridiana, and in Amsterdam i managed to get a hold of the darling Le Fox, who happened to be there too. We met after so many years, at a cofffee shop ( where else? ) and hung out like 12 years had never gone by. A couple of days later there i was, on avenue Louise, ringing the doorbell of Jan’s showroom, as if i had never left town. Jan, as usual, was a total darling. We recalled meeting in 92, when i crashed his birthday party and running into each other the very next day, both hungover, at the VUB cafeteria. Weeks later Jan took me dancing at Le Vaudeville and there i met Laurent -- Le Fox, baby -- and we just clicked.



Jan tried Anis’ eyeglasses during lunch at a sweet trattoria off-Avenue Louise in 2006.





Volaly reunion, in 2007

Le Fox approved of Anis and let us hang comfortably at the Fox’s lair in St Catherine with the original bathroom and Madonna posters and La demence flyers ( Saturgays at La Demence!). He played music for us, told us the concept behind FUck Chuck and we reminisced about the old days.



Dr Alban would be proud



Larry looks a bit blurred but i had to show the madonna poster. (2006)


Straight from Larry’s Box of Wonders and Curiosities.

Then he made a magic phone call and got us all a table at the Brussels Cafe, his favorite restaurant in Brussels since he was a little gamin. That same evening we feasted on the best steak of my life. And i am from Southern Brazil, so i have had my share of pretty excellent steaks in this lifetime.
Brussels Cafe is a family restaurant that serves steaks and moules only. There are no more than 8 tables, 3 people in total working, and these people happen to be the family that owns it. You got to book in advance, sometimes weeks in advance. We were lucky that Laurent has been a regular since he was a baby. The steak and fritjes is just what a steak should be: succulent, tender, juicy, flavorful. There are 3 types of sauce to go with it, but each table can only order 2 different types because they are made to order and there is only one cook - who’s also working the grill. We had champignon and blue cheese ( that is 2 different sauces), and the fritjes are perfect too ( it’s Belgium, you can’t get bad fritjes in Belgium). This year we went again and remembered to take pictures.



Laurent, looking sharp this time, with the steakmeister at Brussels Cafe.


Larry says “ you’ve got to purse your lips when you speak french” and i obey.

When we decided to go to Amsterdam/Rotterdam again this year, I told Anis I also wanted to pass by Brussels, to which he replied : “Yes, we can go and have THE steak...and, oh yeah, see Laurent.”
THE STEAK has become our standard for steaks. An excellent steak is called “almost like the Brussels Cafe steak”.
Of course we went there again. And no, i am not publishing the address in this website. I want to guarantee a table there next time we go.