Vlaaikensgang hides new cocktail bar Tazu (Antwerp)
The Vlaaikensgang in Antwerp has gained a cocktail bar. Tazu wants to offer a top, the service you get in the bar of a five-service star, but without the hotel. The frame, is a discovery in itself corner of the Vlaaikensgang, is a discovery in itself corner of the Vlaaikensgang.
Antwerp is a cocktail bar richer, or is the city a mystery richer? It really is a bit of a search in the maze of alleys and the winding of the Vlaaikensgang. Once you’ve found number 8A, the search isn’t necessarily over.
Via a long corridor with washed walls you end up past the dark sushi restaurant in a much more spacious bar. It looks like a speakeasy (clandestine and therefore hidden pub), hidden in the depths of a historic building. “The building obviously has an ancient history. Owner Axel Vervoordt has ensured that the scars of the time tell their stories here,” says manager Ives Nieberding. “That is why some walls were not painted at all, others were given a light textured paint.”
“The color has to come from the cocktails and the people,” Ives continues in the minimalist interior. “It’s very different from Zaowang, my other business. We have a very low threshold in that sushi restaurant. I was looking for something different.”
International bartender
he was inspired and advised by colleague and friend Andrès Claeys, who failed because of cocktails. “I was looking for international status for the bar, I dream of a place in The 50 Best Cocktail Bars”, reveals Ives.
So he searched that list for a bartender and came across Julian Youssef, who was the head bartender for three years in Central Station in Beirut, a bar from the 50 Best list. “I was ready for something new, a new challenge,” says Julian. “My first stopover was Bruges, but that was too quiet. Antwerp has more of the international vibe I was looking for. The cocktail scene is also bigger here,” he says, telling a Tom Yum cross, a mix of gin, galanga (kind of ginger), kaffir lime, lemongrass and coconut milk. The result of all this is a transparent cocktail, because the lemon has caused the coconut milk to curdle, resulting in filtering the milk from the cocktail. The result is a tasty, yet silent killer.
Tazu has more to offer than that. We passed a sushi bar, didn’t we? You can order better sushi there, from fish that are a little harder to find than the average. Chef Rik Van Hooydonck (Bar Bulot, Dim Dining) also provides a fusion menu, incorporating locally sourced ingredients with an Asian twist. “Most people here earn around 80 euros for two cocktails, a bite and a dish,” says Ives.
The new restaurant can be reached via Pelgrimstraat. You will discover a beauty of a courtyard anyway. Inside, all art is for sale, next to Picasso’s kitchen table, which is centrally located in the restaurant. A worldwide wink from Axel Vervoordt.