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That’s B for Belgium: B. Café comes to the Upper West Side
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B. Cafe on Amsterdam Ave. at 87th Street. Photo by Frank Beck 2009
There aren’t many Belgian restaurants in New York City—and fewer still on the Upper West Side. So recently, when I noticed that B. Café, an East Side Belgian brasserie, had opened a branch on Amsterdam Avenue and 87th Street, I added it to my list of new restaurants to try.
On Friday night, my husband and I swung by at 8:30. The place was packed with a convivial, neighbor-hood crowd. While waiting for a table, we had a glass of Stella Artois, at the cozy little bar in front. Stella is a light, Belgian lager and a bit of a joke in Belgium, which is known for its serious ales and artisanal beers. But the weather was warm, the room crowded, and we were in a summer mood, so a lager seemed just the thing.
Still, as I sipped my Stella, I stared wistfully at the rows of exotic-looking bottles: Troubadour, Grimbergen, Duvel, Malheur … Although I’ve been to Belgium twice, and was captivated by its food, I’d never paid much attention to its vast selection of world-famous beers, but I knew about them.
As is the custom in Belgium, the bartender at B. Café was serving each beer in its own special glass, as if it were a rare wine. Most unusual-looking of all was the one for an ale called Kwak—a tall, round-bottomed glass that looked more like an alchemist’s beaker than a vessel for drinking. That’s the one I’m going to try next, I decided, purely on the grounds of its shape.
B. Café is a narrow, bustling space, where anyone who finds herself standing at the bar inevitably rubs hips with her fellow drinkers. So I was relieved when the hostess arrived after 20 minutes to lead us to a table. Once seated against the wall, however, we practically knocked elbows with the diners on either side of us. The upside was we had soon struck up a conversation with our “neighbors.” The couple on our right lived around the corner, they told us, and highly recommended the Belgian waffles with berries, chocolate sauce and ice cream. When they heard we’d come from more than 20 blocks uptown, they jokingly referred to us as tourists.
On the waiter’s advice, I ordered Malay Laksa, chef Jean Paul’s Malasian take on moules (mussels) prepared with red curry, coconut milk and white wine and served with the classic frites (fries).
Moules Frites (mussels and fries) is the national dish of Belgium. In northern Europe, where mussels—those lovely blue mollusks that cling to rocks in the surf—are plentiful, they are a working class staple; the Belgian equivalent to our burger and fries … but far more delicious. When I visited Brussels several years ago, I dined at gourmet restaurants in the evening but never failed to order moules at an inexpensive café for lunch. Whether they were steamed in white wine, parsley and butter; cooked with tomatoes and garlic; or served in a mushroom and cream sauce, they were always fresh, flavorful and perfect. So were the ones at B. Café. And I loved the red curry kick!
My husband ordered another Belgian classic, carbonnade flamandes, a beef and onion stew, cooked in dark beer. In this version, the dense, purple-brown sauce contained prunes and had an almost charred under-taste—hearty fare, best savored on a winter night. Both of our dinners came with cones of beautifully fried frites. I dare anyone who takes one bite not to eat every last fry!
When the waiter brought my glass of Kwak, sitting in a small wooden stand, I nabbed him to ask about the strangely-shaped glass.
“Zees guy, in zee 1700s, loved to ride horses!” he explained in a heavy French accent, miming the up-and-down movement of a horse. “So zee guy got a special glass, so he could drink when he was riding!”
Oh, so that’s it. Except, who in his right mind would drink ale while bouncing up and down on a horse? Later, I found a slightly different version of the story—this one involving an horse and coach—on the Kwak website. And later still I read claims that Kwak wasn’t actually first brewed until the 1980s, which would make both horse stories a crock of… In any event, I thought the Kwak had a lovely, sweet, almost vegetable taste. (The menu describes it as licorice and banana.) But I’m not a serious beer drinker, so what would I know? My husband, who loves a good British ale or stout, thought the Kwak was too desserty and not a real drink.
Since B. Café boasts a menu of almost 40 different beers, including Abbey ales, specialty beers, beers brewed in Trappist monasteries and lambics—a quirky beer brewed southwest of Brussels—we agreed to return again soon to sample an assortment. (The bar offers a paddle of three small glasses for $16, so you can taste test.) Until another Friday, then. Mais oui. And bon appétit!
B. Café - 566 Amsterdam Ave. near 87th Street - 212-873-1800
Links for more information:
Belgian food
Beer Hunter – Belgian Beers
Belgian beer primer
The Kwak story
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