Heartbroken

Brussels

It’s a very old and typical Brussels daily flea market. You can find good bargains and nice antiques as well as a lot of weird stuff. I used to go there since I’m a kid with my Dad and we would just look for some nice furniture for the house, and after that we would have a sandwich and a soup at la Clef d’Or, a cafe that’s right on the square and is still running today. Those are my dearest childhood memories.

It’s my favourite ice cream spot, I think, in the world. During the first lockdown everything was closed, and you could only have takeaways and I would walk from my home 35 minutes all the way to Bargello and every day I would go and buy one ice cream and that was like my highlight of the day. It’s a true Italian style ice cream parlour, they have these flavours that I love and that you don’t find so often, dark chocolate sorbet and tuscan cream with pistachio and almonds.

It’s a little park located in the heart of Saint Gilles, that typically represents the diversity of Brussels as a lot of different crowds mix there. There is a basketball court and a field where people play pétanque while sipping a beer, the kids play in the grass and the skaters use the upper level’s flat ground with their friends watching them sitting on the stairs. During the first lockdown, it spontaneously became a big hang out place as the bars were closed down, to the point that the police came to confiscate the skating equipment due to neighbourhood complaints.

They make these awesome jerk chicken plates and also fish but also, they make these cocktails which are a bit too strong but are really good, it’s worth the money. They have a DJ, he plays reggae and dancehall and he’s always very hyped about being there, it’s a very nice vibe.

Decoratelier started as a scenography workshop that his owner, Jozef Wouters, opened to other collectives and people from the neighbourhood, and it quickly became a strong community and an inclusive lab for all kinds of ideas and projects. The space is easy to adapt as they use modular scaffoldings to create a different setting for every event, so they have had theatre performances, screenings, club nights as well as karaoke and a gym club.

Heartbroken’s Guide to Summer in Brussels

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