La Fleur en Papier Doré in Brussels (Beer Café Vignettes)
An Unassuming Street
Beyond the bustle of the Grand Place and past the tourists trying to catch a glimpse of Manneken Pis doing his thing, the unassuming Rue des Alexiens slopes gently upward toward the heights of the Sablon district. It was on this street that we found ourselves on a windswept December evening in search of a gilded paper flower.
In a city afflicted by monumental architecture, the current iteration of Rue des Alexiens has the merit of being merely nondescript. The street itself is named after a medieval order that founded a hospice here in the 1300s. It also ran parallel to the old city walls, which put it in the crosshairs of French cannons during the bombardment of Brussels in 1695.
Some buildings survived Louis XIV’s onslaught, especially near the top of the hill, where a few remnants of times past hide out amid the drab surroundings that have sprung up in the centuries since. One of these is that gilded paper flower we were looking for, La Fleur en Papier Doré.
**
Subscribe to my Beerscapes Newsletter for more on the fascinating world of beer culture, along with travel tips about where to find the best beer experiences in Europe and beyond.
**
A Cultural Institution
A soft light beckoned from the window beneath the wrought-iron sign emblazoned with the café’s Flemish name, Het Goudblommeke in Papier. We came in from the cold to a dimly lit tavern, part living room, part art gallery, a gem concealed behind a spare façade.
Inside, La Fleur en Papier Doré is anything but spartan. It’s a cheerful anarchy of art and bric-a-brac that reflects the whimsy of the café’s former owner, Gérard Bruaene, an artist, gallerist, and second-hand dealer who bought the long-established estaminet in 1944. It’s a curiosity cabinet of photos, oil paintings, etchings, antlers, plates, an old Louvain stove topped with a kettle, and tiled floors that have seen better days.
Rough-hewn tables bear witness to would-be artists and scribblers who have etched words and designs across every tabletop. A ramshackle antler chandelier bathes the surroundings in an incandescent glow, its lamps slightly askew as if one too many imbibers have bumped their heads walking past. Trophies of the hunt vie for attention with a carved wooden angel and aphorisms splashed across the walls. An unlikely ensemble.
The dimly lit rooms are crammed with objects that don’t quite belong together, objects like faded newspaper clippings, portraits, coats of arms, maritime scenes, framed playing cards, ibex horns, religious motifs. Or maybe there’s an elective affinity between these hundreds of artworks and objects known only to the eccentric who assembled them—an ironic wink, as it were.
Gérard Bruaene was a larger-than-life figure, his personality stamped on this vibrant estaminet. It’s as if each object were a shard of a larger reality that Bruaene had pieced together—a reality reflecting his life and his milieu of artists and actors.
La Fleur en Papier Doré was quiet on that Wednesday evening when we called in—just a young couple nestled in a corner and a few intellectual types haunting the bar—yet it was a one-time gathering place of artists like René Magritte, chansonniers like Jacques Brel, and comic book authors like Hergé of Tintin fame. The place was a café, gallery, and cabaret rolled into one, a flea market of sorts where you could buy art, used clothes, books, and a coffee or beer.
Then and Now
For a time during the nineteenth century the building housing La Fleur en Papier Doré belonged to the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. It started on its bohemian path around the turn of the twentieth century as the Café des Artistes, a cabaret that became a meeting place for surrealist artists and writers after the First World War.
When Bruaene acquired the café with his wife, Marie-Jeanne Cleren, he combined his own collection with artworks and objects donated by friends, creating what would become a living museum after he passed away in 1964. Cleren ran the café afterwards, keeping the integrity of Bruaene’s design aesthetic intact. The building and its interior received protected heritage status in 1997.
[Image Gallery: Click on a photo to enlarge.]
Despite the heritage designation, the café’s fortunes waned. An arts cooperative rescued the café in 2006. The pandemic almost did the place in a second time before the good folks who run Brasserie Verschueren in St. Gilles stepped in to save this storied place in 2022.
The artistic and literary luminaries may have largely left the building, but La Fleur en Papier Doré still plays host to theatre performances, poetry readings, concerts, and comedy nights. And, with Verschueren at the helm, you won’t lack for a good beer. There’s enough on the modest list to keep beer folks happy, including Geuze Boon and Jambe de Bois, along with beers brewed by Brasserie de la Senne for Verschueren.
Rated Organic
La Fleur en Papier Doré is not a beer destination in the same way that other Belgian beer cafes are. But as I’ve always said, it’s about more than just the beer. The café is a snapshot of history, a museum piece that hasn’t lost any of its vitality. Like Zum Roten Ochsen in Heidelberg or Trödelstuben in Nürnberg, the encrustation of years of bric-a-brac doesn’t feel forced.
If La Fleur en Papier Doré represents a certain design aesthetic—one radically opposed to the ethos of someone like Marie Kondo—it works precisely because it’s organic. It’s not the result of a design concept meant to evoke nostalgia, the kind of manufactured authenticity that results in ready-made spaces like Irish pubs, or so many infinitely repeatable taproom concepts that have popped up in metropolises from Berlin to Tokyo.
And I’ll happily drink to that.
Related Posts
Belgian Beer Cafes: Brasserie Verschueren, Brussels
Belgian Beer Cafés: Poechenellekelder, Brussels
Postcards from Belgium: De Halve Maan, Bruges
Mechelen: Het Anker Brewery and Classic Beer Cafes
Imbibing Beer and Flemish Splendour in Ghent
Sources
Jack Anderton, La Fleur en Papier Doré (The European Bar Guide, 2025)
La Fleur en Papier Doré, menu literature (December 2024)
Cliff Lucas, La Fleur en Papier Doré: Café Society (Belgian Smaak, April 2024)
Cath Pound, The Belgian Trip: La Fleur en Papier Doré (May 2024)
Wikipedia, Het Goudblommeke in Papier
**
If my work has led you to a new discovery on your travels, or if you’ve enjoyed the virtual journey from the comfort of your own home, please consider supporting my writing. You can buy me a virtual drink here. Cheers!
**
All images by Franz D. Hofer
© 2025 Franz D. Hofer and A Tempest in a Tankard. All rights reserved.