Bruges, Belgium
Our table at Bierbrasserie Cambrinus was by the front window of the building that’s been here since 1699. We had to make a reservation the day before, because the small place fills up quickly. The waiter brought us the simple, three-page menu of entrees, main courses, soups, salads, and desserts. Then he plunked down the beer menu.
The wooden-covered, screw-post-bound, plastic-sleeved book took up about a third of our table and weighed a pound or two. Inside were detailed descriptions of 400 kinds of available beers. I figured out pretty quickly that I was gonna like this place.
There was no way I could quickly make a beer choice, so I started with a four-glass sampler of blond and dark house beers and special features. I’m really not particular about what’s in my samplers — I just drink from left to right. I knew one beer was the Gulden Draak featured in the main dish of the Menu of the Brewers, a three-course meal starting with Trappist cheese croquettes, followed by Flemish beef stew made with Gulden Draak and served with applesauce, and for dessert crème brûlée “perfumed with” (whatever that means) Ename dark Abbey beer.
The sampler was my chaser for the croquettes.
The Gulden Draak, a dark triple ale with a 10.5 percent alcohol content, was so good that I had another to go along with dinner.
Ecaussinnes Cookie Beer, a Belgian strong speculoos beer with an 8 percent alcohol content, was my pairing for the crème brûlée.
A few patrons came and went during the course of our meal, but most people were here for the long haul of beer sampling. A dog dozed under one of the tables, looking up occasionally as a waiter passed. For us, the Cambrinus experience lasted 2½ hours, until we could eat or drink no more. By the end, I felt a lot like the guy on the wall mural: King Gambrinus, the patron saint of beer (not sure of the reason for the spelling difference between his name and the restaurant’s). Regardless, it’s nice to end a night in a new country with a full belly and a warm buzz.