BRUSSELS BEER & FRIES WEEK! PART CINQ: SUDDEN DEATH IS PREFERRED

By Joe Ray
Brussels

My word, what a mess.

The "If You Go" recommendation from my Globe lambic story that said "Skip the food, have a drink and move on" was more accurate than I thought.

A La Mort Subite - French for “sudden death” - is a Brussels landmark bar and restaurant, replete with scores of beer and a beautiful hall for quaffing.

Disasters on this scale are tricky to explain, so let's stick to the facts.

I joined a group of fifty for dinner - we had the upstairs hall to ourselves, a bit too exclusively. Though one guy ran the occasional tray or two of beer up the stairs, here was one waitress assigned to us. One.

She was heroic in her efforts, but at the end of the day, she was all alone. For most of us, it took two hours for our food - salads and omelets - to arrive.

As a restaurateur who has likely known for weeks that a group of 50 is coming for dinner, how do you screw up that badly? If feeding 50 people à la carte (as we did) is beyond your capacity, why not say so and propose another option? Why not make sure you have the staff to keep the beer flowing and the food moving? Why not have the chef chop up a few tomatoes ahead of time?

At the one hour 45 minute mark, I looked over at a friend who had an expression on his face that said, ‘shoot me.’

“You’d better write about this,” he sighed.

A la Mort Subite

Rue Montagne-aux-Herbes Potagères 7
Brussels

+32 (0)2 513 13 18
www.alamortsubite.com

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Comments

[Joe Ray]

Hi René,

I promise, I wasn't the one steering the night we ate at La Morte Subite.

Cantillon, you say? Check out the link in the blog post to my Boston Globe story. The Van Roys make fantastic beer and along with Cantillon, I was able to visit with Armand at 3 Fonteinen and Joost de Four at De Heeren Van Liedekerke.

For bonus points, you can see a related story, also featuring Gert Christiaens of Oud Beersel here.

Voila! Bonne lecture!

Joe

[René Sépul]

Hi Joe,

I'm not surprised! But what a choice for having dinner!
Even the beer is not that interesting. If you speak about beer, try Cantillon next time, the only one who's proposing real lambic. It"s a family owned brewery that is still operating in BXL. A great place... and nice people. La mort subite is for tourist who don't look further away than the tourist trap of the area. That area is completely rotten for food. Nothing good. Nothing! There are many great places, but a bit out of the center. For food with charm & some kind of Brussels Atmosphere, try Les Brigittines, near the Sablon.