Café spotlight - De Groote Witte Arend

Of course, from the über-trendy to the beer-hall brown cafés, Antwerp, as a rule, is rarely short on places to stop for a drink. But whenever I find myself with some time to kill in the city’s centre, I always end up at the same spot.

And here I am again, settling into a corner table of a boisterous dining room, awaiting the arrival of a cold Rodenbach Grand Cru and some house-made cheese croquettes.

What is it that keeps bringing me back to this otherwise typical Flemish cafe-restaurant? Is it its picturesque colonnade that flanks a cloistered courtyard filled with tables and benches poised and ready for the last warm afternoons of the year? Or the warm parlour room glowing inside the 15th-century patrician house that is busy serving up steaming plates of stoemp and stoofvlees? Or is it the tiny chapel charmingly tucked away in a lonely corner outside?

Most likely, it is all of this put together. (The list of some 100 Belgian beers does not hurt, either.)

While De Arend is not exactly an “undiscovered gem” (the menu is written in no less than five languages), I find that most of its clientele are speaking Dutch, giving it a local flavour that is missing in some other establishments in this tourist-heavy neighbourhood.

In the evenings, the inside is more restaurant than bar, and the courtyard is relegated to drinkers. But the space is big and the staff friendly, so, from my experience, they will find a way to accommodate you on these now cold nights, even if you just want a drink. Also, private rooms in the main house and off the courtyard make it a perfect place for large groups.

www.degrootewittearend.be