Sylvain Lecomte arrived just after the nightly round of applause for the country’s frontline health workers had died down.
We’ve known each other since he opened Dekkera, his bar and bottle shop in Brussels’ Forest neighborhood, several years ago. Sylvain is slender and fidgety, raised in Belgium’s Francophone region on Saisons and Belgian Blondes. We’ve worked together on several events, and have spent evenings propped on his curving wooden bar top—the reclaimed floor of a mid-century modernist office block—drinking Pils and bemoaning his beloved Chesterfield’s relegation to the bottom of the U.K. soccer league pyramid.
Dekkera, with a charter that prioritizes local producers, has become a hub for neighborhood activism and community, but like all of the country’s hospitality businesses it was dealt a hammer blow by the Belgian government’s decision early in March to order the closure of all bars, restaurants, and non-essential stores. Fortunately in Belgium, beer shops fall under the category of “food shops,” so Lecomte's been able to keep the lights on and the doors open during the week. Still, footfall has been virtually non-existent since Belgian residents were told to stay indoors until April.
So when I saw he was organizing home deliveries, I put in a late-night order and suggested he pad it out with some high-margin beers. The following night, bar closed and car full of deliveries, I opened my door to find him waiting on my doorstep. Deliveries have been brisk, he told me, as people have made an effort to support small businesses. “But, what happens next?” he asked. “People can only order so many beer boxes before they’re fully stocked.”
At least for now, there are still many thirsty residents across Brussels. He shifted from foot to foot while I took his photo and then was back off into the rainy night, more business to attend to.
