Restaurants to try: Antwerpen

As usual, we turned to the NYTimes travel section when looking for travel tips and advice before our Antwerpen trip.I did not make it to all the restos they recommend so I quickly quote them here, as I want to remember to go there next time

This is from the article A Fashion-Forward guide to Antwerp: 

"Graanmarkt 13’s restaurant is overseen by the young, talented chef Seppe Nobels, who trained at Michelin star establishments (Graanmarkt 13; 23-3-337-7991;www.graanmarkt13.be). By day it serves country club food like caviar and club sandwiches; at night Mr. Nobels offers modern versions of European classics like beef carpaccio with foie gras and pork cheeks cooked sous-vide with spring vegetables.

Antwerp’s local fashion crowd and academy students tend to hang out and drink coffee at either Biologisch Dynamische Bakkerij (Volkstraat 17; 32-3-216-0042), a cozy organic bakery and cafe, or the Cafe ‘In de Roscam’ (Vrijdagmarkt 12; 32-486-425-606), which hosts a festive Sunday brunch.

Almost a year before the anticipated May opening of the Museum aan de Stroom, the museum’s ground-floor Storm cafe (Hanzestedenplaats 5; 32-3-231-4300; cafe-storm.com) started drawing crowds of locals curious to check on the building’s progress. And they keep returning — for the harbor views, tasty sandwiches and, on occasional Saturday nights, live music."

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised when now I saw from 'restaurants we recommend' in the NY Travel section Chez Fred being one of the 8 top restaurants and having a New York Times pick. Go Fred!  

Antwerpen - YOUR

As I am in the shopping mindset, here is another one for you. YOUR in Antwerpen.

I must say that the selection in this concept store is lovely and ranges from books to small decorative items to jewelry to clothes and shoes and electronics and watches + they have a beauty salon inside the store.

BUT better than that is the Service! The Service, with a capital S is absolutely phenomenal in this store. The assistants are extremely helpful without being pushy and they are honest (or appear to be) in their opinions and they assist. Tremendously.

So we went in just to take a look...and we bought and bought and bought...and we are still happy with our purchases.

They call their store as: YOUR premium store for damn fine products.

I agree.

Better yet, it is open on Sundays...

and ladies, don't miss out on the YOUR shoe store across the street where you can get shoes in over 100 colours - choose from a few classic designs and put together your rainbow!

www.your-antwerp.com

Amsterdam: de Weldaad

I know that in a year I need furniture and decorative elements. Last time in Amsterdam, just next to the lovely Apple Pie place, I found the store: de Weldaad. Yep, and I fell in love again. There was a myriad of curiosities, decorative items and furniture with real antique mixed with not-so real antique (or so is my guess). My kind of place - a place where I can wonder and get lost and a place from where I want to buy just about everything! A great place to browse and get inspiration, and hopefully, in the future, to shop!

Check out their online presence: www.weldaad.com

Winkel: THE Apple pie

Yes yes yes! That's what I am talking about!

And now, from another angle:

Apple pie is the thing in Amsterdam. I did not know. I found out on my third visit...and now i am contemplating going back...for that apple pie.

In case you have not tried it yet, get up, and go to Winkel (Noordermarkt 43) in the Jordaan area, quickly becoming my favourite area in Amsterdam. The apple pie is lush and comes with an enormous scoop of whipped cream.

As you are next to the Noodremarkt, I recommend to check that out too! Photos to follow later....

Antwerpen: Chez Fred

So I discovered a new city - Antwerpen. I had been reading about it for a while and people keep telling me to go there. So we went. A mere 2.5h drive from Luxembourg, it is a perfect weekend getaway destination.

We stayed in a wonderful hotel (more about that in another post) and they recommended great places to eat. For Sunday lunch/ brunch we ended up going to Chez Fred. It felt a little bit ironic, driving to Amsterdam, to go to a French restaurant, but it looked wonderful and had nice french old music as the background, and we stayed.

Oh, were we glad we stayed!  We saw two women by the window having the most delicious looking breakfast. That's exactly what we wanted after a night out! So I asked,"what are they having".Our waiter guy answered: "breakfast". It could have been snobby but, no, he was just honest, and it was what he said... breakfast. We have not found many places in Luxembourg where to get breakfast on a Sunday at 12 so we wanted that, breakfast.

And this is what it was.

We started off with fresh orange juice.

Then we got the breakfast platter + an egg (not seen in the photo)

A glass of cherry beer:

After which they brought a basket of croissants and jam. They were sooo fresh and warm that I completely forgot about taking a photo. And then, of course, coffee:

For the admirers of women in lingerie, this place is a special treat as there were huge photo prints by Marc Lagrange. If you do not know him, google him! I'd like to say that a style close to Helmut Newton....

A place to remember, and to return!

Chez Fred
Kloosterstraat 83
Antwerpen