When I was in Belgium 14 years ago, I only spent an afternoon in Ghent. Mistake. This time, our group chose Ghent mainly as a convenient base for excursions to West Flanders, but everyone wound up loving it on its own merits. There’s no bragging-rights breweries or world famous bars here, but there were also no real clunkers. It’s a place with a good local flavor, and man is it pretty.
See?
Ghent really loves its food and drink. It’s a student town and on weekends the streets are lively until quite late, but not in a rowdy American frathouse way. I’d hazard a guess you wouldn’t go too wrong choosing watering holes at random, but here’s what I did:
Oudberg: This is restaurant/cafe street beloved by both tourists and locals. If you continue up the street and a bit to the right, it becomes Sleepstraat, the main Turkish street in town. Non-beer note: I eat so many Turkish kebabs whenever I’m in Europe it’s ridiculous, and if you need vegetarian food the Turks have your back on that, too.
Aba Jour: My husband and I broke off from the group one night and had date night at Aba Jour on Oudberg, where the food was a little splurgey but delicious — beef stew in Rodenbach and Westmalle Dubbel, are you kidding me? The bartender was also our table server and he was happy to talk beer with us. Based on my choice of Ellezelloise Quintine, he confirmed that I liked bitter beers (though Quintine isn’t what a Californian would call bitter) then recommended a new beer, L’Arogante, for my second. At 45 IBUs and fresh, I think this was the hoppiest beer I had in Belgium. Good stuff, nice place, cool staff…if they’d been open later I would have returned the next night.
I’m going to be a witch riding a mash paddle next Halloween
‘t Velootje: Also on Oudberg, I tried to go to Velootje (the bicycle bar) but it was jam packed to the point we could barely get in, let alone make it to the bar. My friends had better luck later in the night. They said they were greeted at the door by a man who looked like Santa Claus and jokingly asked them if they were the police before letting them in.
What’s the secret handshake?
Brouwerj Gruut: Just south of the center, the one brewery within Ghent city limits is an odd duck in that it makes only gruits. You may not be blown away by them amid all the other world class beers at your disposal, but flights are available so you can try them with minimal commitment. My husband, who’s homebrewed some good gruit in his time, was enamored of the brown, while I preferred the golden strong. If any strike your fancy, bottles are easily found in local grocery stores. The location of this brewery, like most things we saw in Ghent, was fairly central. Ask your server about the giant mural on the wall — the shirtless guy is supposed to be the mayor.
Dulle Griet: It’s on a main square and there’s a gimmick — no, you won’t be the only tourist in here. The gimmick is that the house beer only comes in a large, outlandish glass that is ostensibly so irresistible to thieves the server takes one of your shoes as a deposit then sends the basket of shoes up out of reach with a flourish.
Shoe basket! So whimsical! Okay, it’s kinda cute. Photo by Betsey.
Trollekelder: Another one of those delightful traditional basement-y pubs that seems like it hasn’t been dusted in 100 years. Trying to find your way to the restroom and back from the basement serves as a de facto field sobriety test.
Waterhuis an de Bierkant: Partially pictured in the first photo in this post, it’s in the middle of everything and practically obligatory. A few house beers, including one they steer the “ladies” towards (sigh). There’s a sister restaurant next door where things got a little silly…
De Planck: This bar is a canal boat. They could serve Natty Lite and people would still go. Fortunately, there’s good beer on the boat. It’s located outside the tourist area so you’ll be more likely to see, you know, actual Belgian people and stuff. It’s a nice enough walk that will help you justify a beer or two.
Brouwzaele: Now that you’ve had beer on a boat, you are a stone’s throw away from another good watering hole. Dig the bar made out of a huge copper brew kettle!
Hot Club de Gande: A jazz club, not a beer bar, though the beers on offer were just fine. And by “just fine,” I mean “you’d be stoked to see these and pay at least twice in any jazz club at home.” Unless you hate music AND beer you should probably come here. 
That one brown cafe that’s in none of the books or blogs: I had mine and you will have yours. The locals are there. They will all look at you when you enter. Some of them will be drinking a lowest-common-denominator like Stella and just as many will be drinking, say, Duvel. It’s dark and the music isn’t the worst pop music in history as it is in so many European bars. Drink your Duvel or whatever and wonder what it would take to sell your house and move to Belgium. Thanks, Ghent. Til next time…
