DR Congo beers in Bruxelles

Regional Forums België-Belgique
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Six years ago I found a small Congolese store in Bruxelles, where I bought seven different beers from DR Congo. I was walking towards the city centre from the Museum of Natural Sciences, when I found the store. I’m going to Bruxelles again in April, and I would like to pick up some more beers from DR Congo, but I have no idea where to find the store again on any other store carrying beers from DR Congo.

I believe the store was located in a pedestrian street (not entirely sure), and it had a very strong smell of dried fish. Other than that I don’t have anything to go by. Does anyone here know where I can hope to find DR Congo beers in Bruxelles?

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Your description sounds like every grocery store in Matongé :joy:

Honestly, most of the nightshops and grocery stores in the Matongé neighbourhood will do you just fine for this purpose. There are a number of shops that should have at least one (usually Primus), and a couple of them will have a small selection (including Tembo, which is actually fairly good, and Nkoyi, which is not). Some shops may also have beers from other Sub-Saharan Francophone countries (e.g., :cameroon: Cameroon, :cote_divoire: Côte d’Ivoire), but I could never determine what the rhyme or reason of the selection would be for any of the shops in particular.

Some streets where you’ll probably have some success include Rue Longue Vie, Chausée de Wavre, and Rue de la Paix.

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I had a feeling my description would be pretty generic :joy:

The one I went to had seven different DR Congo beers, but I had to trade four of them for a rare country tick, which is why I really want to go back for more, but any store with unrated African beers will do just fine.

Judging by the location of the Museum of Natural Sciences and the city centre, I would most likely have taken a route North of Chausée de Wavre. Do you know whether there is likely to be Congo shops in that area as well?

Thanks for the quick response :smiley:

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I definitely can’t guarantee which ones would be where, but there’s a reasonable likelihood that you’ll find at least something from the DRC in the neighbourhood.

North of the Museum of Natural Sciences? That’s the European Parliament, so I’m going to say a hard no on that one (that area tends to have more grocers from central/eastern Europe and northern Africa). I think you’ll have more luck in a westerly direction, as a lot of the businesses geared towards the Congolese community tend to be located a bit closer to the Naamsepoort metro station.

While I’m at it: looking at your profile, maybe you’re also interested in beers from eastern Europe? There’s a great pan-eastern European grocer in Jette called Nostalgie (I added location information to all of the beers that I was able to find there), and you should be able to find a handful of things from :belarus: Belarus, :lithuania: Lithuania, and :ru: Russia. And if you want some Lithuanian (or perhaps :switzerland: Swiss from a recent event or definitely :serbia: Serbian if you’re in town this upcoming weekend) craft ticks, I can never not recommend Dynamo.