delicious hot chocolate in bruges - dat kan!

(bar-c)

opening hours in belgium in general and bruges in particular can be a bit of a mental challenge to the meticulous northwestern european. bar-c (c for chocolate) in bruges is sometimes open, sometimes not and when inquired about the opening hours the staff replies "i don't know. it depends." and they don't want to go more into detail than that. when bar-c does open, it usually opens around 11 pm. and there is no way of telling when it is going to close. in the beginning i thought it to be one of these plentiful belgian tourist traps but this is not the case at all. i certainly had the best hot chocolate i have ever had outside my own home and the chocolate used here is of high quality ranging from different countries of origin and with different characteristics - not the standard over-sweet belgian stuff. And of course you can choose between various white chocolates and chocolate with cocoa of different intensities up to 80%. try tanzania or the extra dark pur uganda and you're in for a treat. all drinks can be made with soy milk, which is unusual in brugge.

(from the menu)

in addition to hot drinking chocolate, the usual pralines, truffles and tablets, bar-c sells chocolate genever, chocolate beer, chocolate soap, chocolate liqueur, cookies and the menu features chocolate rundstofvlees (chocolate beef stew - i never tasted it) and a wide selection of chocolate fondues and other chocolate based desserts and drinks, and a handful of lunch dishes which has nothing to do with chocolate. i had champignons on toast which comes with heaps of fresh salad greens, tomato and cucumber. i requested to have it prepared without any dairy, which was no problem at all. the champignons were roasted in olive oil and a generous amount of very aromatic freshly ground pepper. it was very good.

in spite of the appeal you would think that such a place has to chocolate hungry tourists, i found myself alone in the restaurant during lunch time.

(chocolate and rose soap)