Brothers’ second Ghent restaurant is all about inclusion
De Stokerij is in a former brewery and distillery that retained its giant chimney, and the menu has a bit of everything, with beer and wine to match
On food and drink in Flanders
De Stokerij is the second Ghent restaurant opened by the Claes brothers, chef David and sommelier Jean, who no longer takes part in running the place, other than to suggest suitable beers and wines to go with the dishes provided by David. He’s busy enough with the shop-cum-bar l’Amuzette a few minutes away. Their first restaurant, still operating, is the more informal eetcaffee Multatuli, also in the neighbourhood.
De Stokerij is a former brewery and distillery, as can be seen from the giant chimney. “We were looking for a house to install a big kitchen, because the one in our other restaurant was too small,” Jean explains. “We ended up here, and it was too nice to do nothing with it. The building had been empty for 30 years when we found it.”
What should have been a kitchen to serve Multatuli (the pseudonym of 19th-century Dutch author Eduard Douwes Dekker, who wrote the novel Max Havelaar) became a restaurant in its own right, now housing 120 covers, 40 on the ground floor and 80 upstairs.
Rare beers
The two brothers are from Poperinge in West Flanders, the epicentre of Belgium’s hop industry. Like so many young people from West Flanders, they came to Ghent to study – Jean is an archaeologist, David a social worker – and simply stayed.
Multatuli opened about nine years ago; De Stokerij five years after that. As befits a business opened by outsiders, it’s all about inclusion. David describes his style as “Belgo-French with vegetarian touches”.
“We have suggestions for gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan. Everybody can come here,” he says. “Also healthy or not so healthy: You can have fries and cream sauces if you want.”
Aside from the stoverij (stew), the healthy options include tomato carpaccio with burrata cheese and sourdough toast, quinoa with goat’s cheese and beetroot, and pasta with rocket pesto, paired with Steenuilke beer from De Ryck – just one of the speciality beers on the menu.
Others include Taras Boulba from Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels and the rarely found Keikoppen from De Plukker, brewed by organic hop grower Joris Cambie from their native Poperinge.
Photo courtesy De Stokerij
