De Kluis

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.

In the Flemish crime drama “Witse”, a police commissioner, played by Hubert Damen, leaves Brussels for nearby Halle to start a new chapter after learning of his wife’s infidelity. Café de Kluis becomes Witse’s local pub (“Kluis” is a vaulted safe and a “Kluizenaar” is a hermit). It’s a lambiek café that’s existed in Halle since 1885, where the coasters are jammed under table legs because the floor is so uneven. Actual patrons of the real café were often cast as extras in the show, all having unknowingly practiced their parts hundreds of times before: Walk in, order a beer, sit down. Commissaris Witse and his fictional partner, Inspecteur Van Deun, were even famously photographed here for a Payconiq print ad (a mobile payments company used ubiquitously in Belgium) enjoying a Pils and a Strong Dark Ale, respectively. “Too bad they weren’t drinking a Geuze,” laments de Kluis manager, Sonja Bosmans. A lengthy menu of Lambics and Geuze matches almost perfectly to the fully-stocked bottle fridge in the back, and the enamel signs covering the walls show which Trappist and Abbey beers are available. If you’re feeling generous, give the tassel handle of the bell behind the bar a ring to signify you’re buying a round for everyone. But as the sign says, it’s cash only—and Payconiq, of course.