The Brussels Bar

"Is that picture of a little boy peeing?’ squeaked some West Coast girl as I entered Brussels Bar. ‘Ugh! Yuck.’ And she was right. The logo of this Belgian-themed hangout is Manneken Pis, Belgium’s famous urinating statue. This clueless onlooker presumably thought it was some sort of joint homage to pedophiles and golden showers; maybe she would have preferred Hercule Poirot. Don’t let the ignorance of others prevent you from proudly enjoying Brussels, though.

While its bistro vibe is still a work in progress and the furniture is fairly standard (although comfortable), it does have three aces up its sleeve. The first is its range of Belgian beers: think Westmalle, Kwak and Lindemans. Most of these 33cl bottles go for 40RMB, but you can buy three for 100RMB or seven for 200RMB. There are a number of French and German bottled beers too, plus draught lagers (Stella for 30RMB; Tiger for 25RMB), house wines (35RMB a glass) and a range of cocktails (40RMB). The second is the huge – nay, massive – projection screen. This is a great place to watch sport. It may currently lack a killer buzz, but for those who simply want to watch and drink, it’s perfect: the team here are keen to please and can seemingly show anything (laws permitting) Which brings us to the third reason to get behind Brussels: it already feels like somewhere that Knows What It’s Doing. This is, no doubt, thanks to former Fubar duo Kenn Bermel and – for the launch phase only – Chad Lager. To borrow the old Field Of Dreams adage, ‘If Chad helps build it, they will come.’ Or fans of sport and Belgian beer will, at the very least.