Mort Subite - Sudden Death in Brussels
Ask where to go for a beer in Brussels, and you’ll receive a list. The first time I went, I asked a friend, and got a list. I enquired on the Internet and got a list. Only one place was common to both lists. So surely it was worth a try? But, it turned out not to be just a place to go for a few beers. It was an exploration, to be navigated like an oenophile with a select wine-list.
It’s called the 'Mort Subite’. It’s in Rue Montaigne aux Herbes Potagères, just to the north of Grand’Place. The name translates as ‘Sudden Death’, which is not a comment on the quality of the catering!
In 1910, Théophile Vasson ran a bar called ‘La Cour Royale’. It stood next door to the National Bank of Belgium, and the bank clerks liked to spend their lunch-breaks there. They were fond of a dice-game called ‘421', but, when time to go back to work drew near, they changed the rules so as not to be late back at their desks. The shortened version of the game became known as ‘Mort Subite’
M. Vasson moved to Rue Montaigne aux Herbes Potagères in 1928. But he remembered his former customers by calling his new bar ‘A la Mort Subite’. On the wall, there’s still a yellowing photograph of the then King of the Belgians, enjoying a beer there in 1930.
Not a lot has changed since the uniformed and be-medalled King Albert called in for a brew. Except, the walls got yellower!
‘A la Mort Subite’ is a ‘brown bar’. They’re so called because the walls and ceiling have
the patina of ancient ivory, caused by the accumulation of over seventy years of tobacco smoke!
The list I down-loaded from the Web told me that, on Saturday nights, ‘ ....... every smoker in Belgium is there ....’. Encouraged, no doubt, to make their contribution to the décor?
However, either that information is out of date, or there aren’t many smokers in Belgium any more. I found the atmosphere quite tolerable ........ and I’m a ‘crusading ex-smoker’!! And, I think that if I still smoked, I’d have taken one look at those walls, and quit there and then.
‘Mort Subite’ is also the name for some of the good selection of beers on offer. They’re brewed by the Vasson family, who still own the bar; Théophile’s great-grandsons, Olivier and Bernard are presently in charge.
Some of them are fruit beers. I tried ‘gueuze’, which had a pleasant, lemony flavour and moved on to ‘kriek’ or cherry beer. I finished with ‘lambic’ which had an elusive spicy tang I couldn’t identify. I knew it from somewhere ....... but, at that time of night, decided that life was too short to worry about it!
Later, I found out more about the beers. Lambic is brewed from a mix of about two thirds
malted barley and one third unmalted wheat. Only natural, airborne yeasts are used: during the
brewing process, it's left overnight, exposed to the air, before being left to ferment in
wooden barrels. Different brews of lambic mixed together make up a gueuze ... and if you add
fruit, you get kriek, if it's cherries, fraise if it's strawberries, framboise if it's
raspberries and cassis if it's blackcurrants.
I liked the fact that the ‘Mort Subite’ contained absolutely no diversions of an electronic kind, and few of any other kind. There were racks for billiard-cues, but the tables are long gone. But, it was busy without being crowded ...... and most of the clientèle seemed to be locals, many of them young.
Maybe the shabby-looking street in the immediate vicinity discourages the wrong kind of tourist? But, for those who like good beer and good atmosphere, it’s worth a call. Maybe, you’ll leave vowing never to touch the Evil Weed ever again. But, you might just become addicted to Belgian beer!