But those who know what’s what know that Pink Flamingo’s isn’t just kitsch – it’s valuable kitsch. The always busy, always amicable spot is famous both inside and outside of Ghent for its wealth of everrotating 1950s, ’60s and ’70s collectibles.

“My living room looks a lot like this,” smiles Lars Verhasselt, who, together with business partner Johan Deley, bought the cafe 11 years ago at the ripe age of 22. “It was a risk, but I was young,” he says, as he lights up a cigarette on a cold December day just before Christmas. He’s as much at home seated at his bar, as he is behind it, which is where you’ll find him most of the time.

The place already had its name and its tell-tale sexy kitty logo (by “Atomic style” designer Matto Le D) two years before that. First it was a bookshop, then a secondhand shop, then a coffee bar. The owners, clearly unable to find their niche, sold it to the then-students. Verhasselt and his partner liked the kitsch quality that was already present and decided to keep it. In the years since, they’ve made the space a Mecca for collectors. There’s nothing for sale, but they come to look.

Verhasselt is a collector, and he gets together with others of his feather to decide on upcoming themes: Pink Flamingo’s is no helter-skelter kitsch joint – objects on display and their placement are all planned well in advance and always follow a theme, be it “Italy”, “divas” or “religion”. Rotating every three months, the theme will soon be “érotique”.

But, right now, it’s “Almodóvar”. You’ll find the obvious delectable collectibles – stills of Penelope Cruz and other beautiful women from the Spanish director’s movies – but also objects, such as old televisions, that suggest his genre, and still others that make it clear these people know what they are doing. A 1970s telephone puts one in mind of a key prop in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – or perhaps it’s to remind us that Almodóvar worked for Spain’s national telephone company in his youth. Record players and album covers from the same period are a reminder that his films’ soundtracks are often played long after the cinema curtain has closed.

Some of the pieces are owned by Verhasselt or someone on his “team” of collectors – others are borrowed. With the ongoing craze for all things retro, “it’s getting harder and harder to find original pieces that are affordable; prices are 20 times what they were 10 years ago,” he says. “If I didn’t change the interior, it would be easy. But I would get bored. And for the customers, it’s better this way.”

Changing the theme means that collectors (and any other admiring public) who want to have a peek at the latest collection just have to come back – not a bad business plan. The cafe used to, in fact, have a party every time the theme changed. But the noise level got a bit out of hand, and neighbours complained. So now they throw a big annual DJ dance party every January at Ghent arts centre Vooruit.

One thing that never changes, though, is the infamous Barbie chandelier just inside the doorway, which was commissioned by the cafe’s original owners. It’s so original and unexpectedly fabulous that it’s now on the official tour the city gives to visitors.

The cafe has done so well, Verhasselt has been able to open two shops around the corner – Zsa Zsa Rouge, which sells a collection of new colourful housewares and kitsch curios, and Petit Zsa Zsa, a children’s shop for very cool parents and their kids.

Verhasselt wasn’t born in Ghent, but he had friends here as a youth and decided to call it home, too. “People come here and stay here,” he says of the city. But he could be talking about his bar. The customers are loyal, from the students through to the pensioners. “Our longeststanding customer died a year and a half ago,” says Verhasselt. “He was 82.”

But they are also diverse. The menu doesn’t hurt – a good selection of beer and spirits (including the best Irish coffee outside of an Irish pub), plus milkshakes if you please. But mostly it’s the feel of the place – run by 20- and 30-somethings who actually appear to know the value of making the over-40s feel at home. And the barkeeps are more patient with broken Dutch than anyone should ever have to be. Pink Flamingo’s might be achingly hip, but it doesn’t care if you are.

Pink Flamingo's Royale
30 January, from 22.00
Vooruit balzaal and cafe
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23
Ghent
www.pinkflamingos.be