NYC Tastes

Our final morning in Brussels, we packed our bags and headed out for one last beer-centric stop to In De Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst, which translates to The Insurance of Great Thirst.  This cozy little pub is the last remaining cafe in the town of Eizeringen and only open on Sunday's. The little building looks like something from a fairy tale, with exposed wooden ceilings, tiled floors and a delightful mix of church goers and beer geeks, all chatting over bottles of lambic.  Grote Dorst has one of the largest selections of kriek and gueuze in the entire world with fantastic bottles like Bokkereyder Wijngaard brewed with Muscat and Riesling grapes and the Toots Tribute a dry, funky gueuze I absolutely fell in love with that Sunday morning. It's hard to just order one bottle when faced with such an incredible  list, so we stayed for a few vintage 3 Fontenien's. A super dusty bottle of 50 Degrees North- 4 Degrees East. And another round of wonderf...

Day 3 in Brussels we woke up bright and early for a trip to my favorite place in the entire world, 3 Fonteinen's Lambik-O-droom.   This beautiful brewery located in the town of Beersel creates the most exceptional gueze in all of Brussels (in my humble opinion). We arrived right at 10:30 AM for the Saturday morning tour which takes guests through the history of the brewery, barrel room and bottling facilities. Since I had already been to Lambic-O-droom before, I hung out in the tasting room while my friends explored, and enjoyed a solitary bottle of Oude Geuze Vintage 2012, one of my favorite geuze's of all time. Followed by an Oude Geuze Vintage 2008 and 3 Fonteinen's incredible geuze cheese paired with mustard and apricot preserves.  I was really hoping to bring some of this fabulous cheese back to NYC, but it was already sold out by mid-day.  We spent the rest of the afternoon making our way through the extensive bottle list, sharin...

Our last trip to Brussels we ubered out to the countryside of Beersel to Drie Fonteinen , my favorite geuze producer of all time. It was just a small blendery back then starting to brew their own beer on site for the very first time.  Fast forward to 2017 and owner Armand has opened up a brand new spot called lambik-O-droom which is much closer to Brussels center and boasts a massive space for bottling, blending and barrel aging along with a beautiful tasting room. Since we had done the full tour of the old facility last time we decided to devote all of our time this trip to relaxing and enjoying his delicious geuzes.  We met up with a friend who also happened to be visiting from NYC and sat down to share some bottles. Oude Geuze Vintage 2012- one of my favorites of the Drie Fonteinen geuzes.   So bright and lemony with that fantastic lingering toasted sesame funk.  This was so perfect we ordered a second bottle right away along with the delicious house geuze ch...

Our third day in Brussels was easily my favorite day of the entire trip. I woke up without a touch of illness in sight and was beyond ready to spend the day eating and drinking our way through two incredible places- the first stop De Heeren Van Liedekercke. This restaurant and bar is in the town of Denderleeuw, a 30 minute train ride followed by a 30 minute walk from Brussels.  We were a bit worried as it poured almost all afternoon but somehow we missed the sheets of rain both coming and going.  Luck was definitely on our side at this cozy tavern. Gueuze happens to be my favorite style of beer so after holding off the past few days I was ready to dive right in with a full on gueuze lunch starting with a funky Mort Subite (brewed at the restaurant from the day before) and the flagship Oude Geuze from Drie Fonteinen. These gueuzes couldn't be more different; the Mort Subite was malty and sweet while the Drie was bright with fresh lemons.  A re...

In honor of our anniversary Mr. T and I decided to crack open one of our favorite beers of all time Armand'4 Herst from Brouwerji Drie Fonteinen.  We actually had the chance to visit this incredible place last year which you can check out  here ; then stumbled across this very bottle in the shop attached to Mikkeller and Friends where we drank the amazing summer version  Zomer . The aroma of this is a big crazy mix of bright lemon, oak, white wine and tons of that dusty barnyard funk that seemed to envelop our entire living room.  The flavor is just bursting with that acidic, nutty, toasted sesame goodness I absolutely adore. Good lord what I wouldn't give to drink this entire set on my own one day...Cheers! Drie Fonteinen

This was a crazy and amazing year filled with lots of great food, friends and travel.  It began in January with a fantastic trip to San Diego with my parents.  They learned more about beer on that trip than they probably ever cared to know hitting up spots like Alpine, Ballast Point  and Societe Brewing .  Then Mr. T and I spent a few days in Florida  before embarking on an absolutely incredible trip to Copenhagen  and Brussels  with our close friends and certainly the best beer festival of my life the  Copenhagen Beer Celebration .  Add in a few trips to Buffalo,   Vermont  and Nashville  and I would say we've been pretty busy.  But in the end it's always NYC that holds the biggest spot in my heart.  This year the food was better than ever and with new breweries like  Third Rail  and  Other Half  joining the leagues of Peekskill, Kane and Barrier there's never been a better tim...

Our second day in Brussels Mr. T was feeling a lot better and actually left the hotel room.  YAY!!!  I had been so worried he would miss out on a trip to the countryside, more specifically to Drie Fonteinen, a brewery I was absolutely ecstatic about visiting. Drie Fonteinen is about a 30 minute drive from Brussels in the center of  Beersel.  It began in 1887 as a geuzestekerij, a place where old and new lambics are blended together to produce geuze, and still operates as that today with the addition of a brewery to produce lambic.   We began our day in the Drie Fonteinen brasserie where the motto is "the ideal place to get away from it all and recapture the spirit of yesteryear".  I have to say after about 10 minutes lounging in the garden staring at the gorgeous fourteenth century church out front I was definitely a million thoughts away from anything 2014 or NYC based. The menu consisted of local Belgium dishes like a hearty Flemish...