À La Becasse

Photos and words by Cliff Lucas.
Edited by Breandán Kearney.

Café Society is a photographic series which celebrates the spaces at the heart of Belgian beer culture. See more here.

The French word becasse means woodcock, a small wading bird with a long, slightly curved beak and a distinctive drumming sound used for mating. An inconspicuous mosaic of a woodcock lays on the ground just outside a long and slightly curved corridor leading to one of Brussels’ oldest estaminets, À La Becasse. A red neon arrow above the tiled walkway offers a navigational hint to passersby who may have missed the narrow entrance. Founded in 1877 by Henri Steppé, and still owned by the same family, À La Becasse is a Lambic café in the heart of Brussels known for serving a sweetened Lambic from a jug. Its interior wooden walls, tables, and chairs visually blend together, until a bright green Brugse Zot sign disrupts this brown plumage. Signage from the now defunct Bécasse-Steppé blending operation, which stopped production of Bécasse-labelled beers in the mid-1900s, hangs from the walls and the ceiling above both sides of the brass-trimmed bar. On warmer days, when the café’s doors and entry curtains are left ajar, a distinctive drumming sound of a busy city centre can be heard inside where tourists and locals wade through conversations over jugged beers.