No one could really believe it in 2016 when In de Verzekering Tegen de Grote Dorst (Insurance against a Huge Thirst) was voted the best bar in the world.
It is after all just a rustic local café next to the church in a Flemish village near Brussels. And it is only open for three and a half hours every week – on Sundays, holidays and after local funerals. But the website RateBeer had put it at the top of their ranking.
Run by two brothers and their mother, the café stocks hundreds of Lambic beers produced in the local area, including some very rare bottles. The owners believe their bar became famous after a group of beer tourists ended up there after their bus got lost in the rolling hills.
It has a rather austere 1950s interior, no food and no credit card machine, but it is truly authentic, with a mix of locals and beer enthusiasts creating a relaxed mood.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
