Back in January, Flanders Today published news that Joris Tiebout, owner of Anderlecht abattoir and CEO of managing company Abatan, “intends to turn the whole complex into a new covered food market.” With the €6 million in subsidy from the Brussels Region (the steel- and cast iron-covered market from 1890 is listed as a protected monument), the idea is for the abattoir “to become the major food market for shoppers, with all sorts of food stores: meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and everything else besides. We don't yet have anything like La Boqueria in Barcelona here in Belgium," Tiebout said.

Plans for turning the abattoir into a full-time market of this scale don’t get under way until 2012, but there’s already a detectable buzz about the place. “The revival of this neighbourhood has started!” exclaims Paul Thielemans of Abatan. “We hope by this initiative to reach people from all the 19 communities and from around Brussels.”

More conscientious consumers are there to buy all fresh vegetables from local farmers and meat straight off the chopping block. Others come simply for a weekend stroll, to “sniff up the atmosphere”, as they say, while enjoying a nibble and an aperitif.

In addition to the fresh fish market (frequented by top chefs), there’s bread and other baked goods, wonderfully smelly cheeses and even wine and traditional Italian specialities like pastas and sauces. And true to its name, the abattoir still has active butchers and carvers on site, hence the wide range of top-quality meat on offer including veal, beef, mutton, pork, horse and venison.

The abattoir is also now open every first and third Thursday of the month for the very first edition of the Boeremet (Brussels dialect for a farmer’s market). The Boeremet differs from the weekend market in that the focus is on food – all artisanal, often organic and homemade food produced on a small scale. There are no textiles or antiques for sale as is the case during the weekend market, and the whole atmosphere is decidedly more festive.

The grand opening on 1 September is a guaranteed feast with an array of 30 colourful, multicultural stalls manned by enthusiastic vendors calling out their wares. Setting the mood are a walking duo of professional jazz musicians, a juggler/magician and his fortune teller/masseuse partner (look-alikes to the cartoon couple featured on the website) and a Vedett beer stand.

Shopping really doesn’t have to be a burden at all.

www.boeremet.be

Ropsy Chaudronstraat 24, Brussels;
entrance is in front of the Michelin
Restaurant La Paix; free parking,
nearest metro station is Clemenceau

Market: Fri-Sun, 7.00-14.00
Boeremet: Every first and third Thursday
of the month, 15.00-19.00

Excellent outdoor market on
the atmospheric property of a
19th-century slaughterhouse

Contact Bite at [email protected]