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I am thrilled to announce that in November 2021 my book “Belgian Café Culture” (Authentieke Belgische Cafés in Dutch) is getting a 5 year anniversary edition with a new cover!
This book is a plea to carefully handle the fragile café heritage of Belgium. For too long have we taken these little cafés for granted. Not enough have we stopped to think about their history and their relevance in our culture. They are part of our social and cultural patrimony in Belgium. When I walk the streets, everywhere I look I see forgotten and lost cafés.
When I read in the papers that a much-loved café was going to close down I went to visit it, to talk to the people there who were about to lose their local. I was probably one of the last to document it. Nothing could be done; the owners of the building wanted to renovate the café and there is wind of a more hipster implementation. For this reason alone a lot of authentic cafés have had to go.
But the need for modernisation is not the only reason why so many old Belgian cafés disappear. The ones that have been in the family for generations often disappear because there are no children who want to take over, or because no-one dares to take over an old-fashioned café. The cafés that have been closing in the last 5 years mostly become residential dwellings. All that remains are the memories of those who used to drink there.
A café can be the centre of a community, where people laugh and cry together over a glass of ale. Where disagreements are settled with words and sometimes with the fist. But where people often help those who are in need. Listen to those who would otherwise only have silence as a reply. Births and weddings are celebrated, but so are the dead.
Photo Exhibition in Antwerp
From 3 december until the end of januari you can visit the exhibition “Op Café” with Regula’s photo’s from the book at Luddites Books & Wine, first floor in Antwerp. For the occasion you will receive a complimentary Vintage 2016 Vintage Rodenbach with every purchase of her book. All books are signed by the author.
The book was featured by the BBC Radio 4’s The Food Program and on Radio 1 ‘De wereld van Sofie’.
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UPDATE 2021 – Belgian Café Culture is getting a 5 year anniversary edition with a new cover! I am so very pleased! Publication date in early November!
A week after the launch of Pride And Pudding, exactly one year ago, I started working on a new book, a passion project…
This book ‘Belgian Café Culture / Authentieke Belgische Cafés (in English and Dutch) is a plea to carefully handle the fragile café heritage of Belgium. For too long have we taken these little cafés for granted. Not enough have we stopped to think about their history and their relevance in our culture. They are part of our social and cultural patrimony in Belgium. When I walk the streets, everywhere I look I see forgotten and lost cafés.
When I read in the papers that a much-loved café was going to close down I went to visit it, to talk to the people there who were about to lose their local. I was probably one of the last to document it. Nothing could be done; the owners of the building wanted to renovate the café and there is wind of a more hipster implementation. For this reason alone a lot of authentic cafés have had to go.
But the need for modernisation is not the only reason why so many old Belgian cafés disappear. The ones that have been in the family for generations often disappear because there are no children who want to take over, or because no-one dares to take over an old-fashioned café. The cafés that have been closing in the last 5 years mostly become residential dwellings. All that remains are the memories of those who used to drink there.
A café can be the centre of a community, where people laugh and cry together over a glass of ale. Where disagreements are settled with words and sometimes with the fist. But where people often help those who are in need. Listen to those who would otherwise only have silence as a reply. Births and weddings are celebrated, but so are the dead.
Clubs meet at cafés and in the past they also doubled as village or theatre halls. Cafés often had a small shop, a smithy, a hairdresser or a butcher’s shop. This was very common before the 1980s. Today there’s only one café shop left and you can count the café hairdressers on one hand.
In the larger cities the cafés were also where people waited to be given work from the factories or the docks. It was also where they were paid at night. A café landlady from Antwerp remembers the drama well when men spent their entire wages on beer and went home without a dime. There was a café on every street corner in those days…
This book is dedicated to the landlords and ladies who have been running these cafés for generations or have been preserving the original interiors purely out of understanding of their importance. This book is not about me, it is about them and their livelihoods. Our Belgian Café.
Belgian Café Culture or Authentieke Belgische Cafés is a bilingual edition English/Dutch. Published by LUSTER, 272 pages and hardback finish.
Written, photographed and designed by your truly. The cover is by my husband Bruno Vergauwen.
If you’d like a signed copy (25 euro plus shipping), or a signed copy with a signed photo print (50 euro plus shipping), please get in contact. There is a Dutch and an English cover.
Alternatively you can also contact the publisher directly or go to your local bookstore (in Belgium) or order online at the usual places (Amazon, or Waterstones to name two)
I will be sharing the limited edition version soon, this will contain a signed book, signed photoprint, and a ‘Zageman’ a kinetic toy used in Belgian Cafés in the past (why you’ll read in the book where I explain the folkloristic customs). This edition will be limited to 10 only, and will be available for 99 euro plus shipping, or 150 euro for a painted ‘Zageman’ kinetic toy. More info and pictures soon, we’re making the ‘Zageman’ as we speak. (See the video here for a preview >)
My husband created these amazing kinetic toys which were traditionally used in Belgian cafés! Available for sale, just a few of them 
For press get in touch by emailing me.
Because I want to share this book as much as I can to tell people about this fading heritage, I’m giving away 2 copies of the book. I’ll pick from the comments below, just tell me why you think this is important to be documented, or tell me about fading heritage in your country or region. Or another story! Post! Let’s get this conversation going!!
Update: The winners are Gabriela Athayde and Rossella Di Bidino. Please get in touch with your address! (see my email on the contact page!)
Some Reviews
In Dutch:
English
French
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A little personal post from me, but then again, it is a personal blog so it is alright.Five years ago to this day, Bruno and I got married in our home away from home in Sussex, UK. When thinking about how we wanted to get married, it was important for us that we did it our way, or not at all. We are not religious, so we are not bound to a mother church. We are not emotionally bound to the country or town that we live in, so that was not an option either. So this little quintessentially English town that had been our favourite place in the world for years, and for me in my teens, was the only place we really could see us getting married.
The day came and so did the rain, it felt like it was march, the time when we had our fixed date in the calendar to visit this little town. The week before on our visit to sort the last paperwork kerfuffle it had been a heat wave here, but on our wedding day it was windy and cold. Although my dress was made for summer, the cold didn’t bother me that day, the wind did mess up my hair, but the torrential rain waited until we had to go for our dinner at the towns oldest and most haunted Inn.
We got married in town hall, where I arrived late making everyone there nervous as hell. The town crier was there to be a witness to the occasion and to loudly accompany us to the nearby historic public house for a toast. The whole town came out to see us and followed us to the pub, over the cobbles and in the light drizzle of rain. When we arrived at the pub, the blessed town crier threw open the heavy 17th century door and cried that the bride and groom had arrived. The unsuspecting punters at the bar nearly choked in their pints. We toasted with Stout and Cider and after my fresh husband and I got two hours to be together and walk around our beloved town while our friends Sassy and Frank took photo’s for our album and a little video.
Our wedding story really began a year before on a dramatic cliff in Cornwall.
I bought a simple silver ring from a jeweler/pirate in a barn at Landsend. He had made this ring by hammering it onto rock and the imprint was therefore that of the surrounding Cornish coast. Bruno took the ring and kept it with a silly promise he was going to give it to me later. It was inexpensive but nonetheless it was special for being unique. When we finally sat down on a rock watching over the rough see, on the most beautiful and dangerous cliff path, he quietly went down on one knee. We were there alone with the seagulls, and he got the ring out and asked me with a delicate and trembling voice if I wanted to marry him.
And so we did, a year later in another part of England with the same ring but this time in gold, made by the same jeweler/pirate in Landsend who had been so kind to make them for us. No other rings would have been right for us, and Bruno told me he had been looking for an engagement ring and wedding rings for months but could not find something that was right. For us, it is important that items have a meaning, otherwise they are just items.
My weddings dress was a vintage late 1950’s gown in white lace which had to be adjusted to fit my shape. Sadly the seamstress took ages to work on it, joking that she promised it would be ready the week before the wedding. If you’ve been a bride, you know that this is the kind of joke you can not deal with. I was worried I wasn’t going to have a dress and 3 months before the wedding, nothing had been done about it and the seamstress kept postponing the fittings. So I did what every bride(zilla) would do, get a backup plan. I went with a company in London to make me a red wedding dress in the record time of 2 months. The dress was ready, after two fittings that calmed my nerves, a month before the wedding, the vintage dress was ready a week before. So on my wedding day I had two dresses to choose from.
I wish my vintage dress would have been ready earlier or that I had had the guarantee that it would be. If you know me I’ve always preferred the old over the new, and I had spent ages searching for this gown. It had come from the US, though it had been made in the UK. The red dress was a financial headache but in the end I am really happy I had it, if not only so I knew I would have a dress on the most special day of my life. After all, I was only planning to get married once in my life so everything had to be perfect.
Five years on today, I still cherish the white vintage lace dress more than the red dress. I think it is just the way I am.
And the day after the wedding I put it on, and my new husband and I went out to take some pictures with it to keep as a memory.
Picture by us
Picture by yours truly
Picture by my husband.
Pictures by Sassy Lafford from Assassynation photography
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