Belgian Café Culture Archives

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8 december 2017 stierf Leza.

Leza was 66 jaar de kranige cafébazin van In de Welkom in Dworp. Haar echte naam was eigenlijk Barbara, maar iedereen noemde haar met veel genegenheid Leza. Het café was 110 jaar in de familie: de grootouders van haar reeds overleden echtgenoot, Michel Wouters, kochten het in 1906. Michel was niet alleen cafébaas, hij was ook de laatste burgemeester van Dworp; vandaar dat het café soms ook ‘Bij den burgemeester’ wordt genoemd.

Als Michel burgemeester was dan maakte dat Leza de ‘first lady’ van Dworp, en dat was zij zonder twijfel.

Toen ik Leza voor het eerst ontmoette om haar verhaal vast te leggen voor mijn boek was ze net 90 geworden. Haar geliefde café stond overvol bloemen en enkele dagen ervoor werd ze in een oldtimer met open dak rondgereden in haar Dworp, begeleid door de zestig ‘Dworpse Bikers’ die elke zondag in haar cafeetje samenkwamen.

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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.

Although this heritage has always been staring me in the face, I only realised how fragile it is, and how important it is to preserve it, after taking a Belgian beer sommelier course which involved a lot of homework visiting cafés. The news of the closure of café Den Akker gave me the drive to do something about it in the only way I know how: by writing this book and documenting the importance of it.

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In memoriam: Leza van café ‘In de Welkom’ in Dworp

My Books: Belgian Café Culture

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