Chemistry and Botanic’s, Brussels

In Brussels, like in any major city, cocktail bars are popping up like mushrooms. Here, some are former beer places that have added the sign “cocktails” on the street, some are poshy and expensive places for eurocrats and business travellers, some are real cocktail spots with a soul. To help you out in your choice, I have tried the Chemistry and Botanic’s and I can confirm this is where you, fellow educated martini drinkers, want to go.

The bar is in the city centre, just some meters away from the tourist buzz but easily reachable, and is a cozy one-room place with flowers and grass pending from the ceiling (!!), and with a rather minimalistic bar counter at the end of the room. This does not happen in many bars, where the counter is sort of in the middle, and makes it possible to sit at the bar in a rather quiet way with respect to the other customers. The cocktail menu is balanced: the classics, but also some very intriguing signature cocktails, and some suggestions of the moment (when I was there the suggested drink was the Boulevardier, which is living a new reinassence these days). I got a classic martini and a twisted one with some Mexican chili liquor, that actually was co-designed on the spot with the bartender, and both were great, in terms of ingredients, preparation, temperature, and serving.

All very good then, but there is something more here, that fundamentally distinguishes a good bar from a bar you want to go back as soon as possible, and again. In a nutshell, this is the capacity of the two guys behind the bar to make you feel at home as soon as you take a seat at the bar, openly sharing the passion they put in their work, making you discover that Belgian vermouth they are so proud of, discussing how that new martini could be constructed, in a humble still very knowledgable way, or telling you about the bar scene in the city. And all of this, never invading your privacy. Chapeau pour l’equipe! Classic Martini rate: 8.