De Pelgrom becomes Vertigo and regional beers make way for cocktails (Antwerp)
For decades, café de Pelgrom was a household name among people for a specialty beer and classical music. Now the bankrupt brown café in the Pelgrimstraat has been taken over by the Antwerp catering entrepreneur Savas Coskun, who is going to turn it into a cocktail bar.
Patrick Van de Perre
“It will be a high-end cocktail bar where there will also be an opportunity to dance. The intention is to regularly invite a DJ to organize evenings around a theme,” says Savas Coskun. Together with his family, the Antwerp resident also runs the steakhouse El Toro Negro on the Oude Koornmarkt and a restaurant in Broechem.
The fact that café de Pelgrom was for rent was a great opportunity for Savas Coskun. “I often hear from guests in the steakhouse that they want to go out after dinner in the historic center. But there isn’t that much there anymore. Brown pubs and restaurants, that is. But not yet a cocktail bar where you can dance.”
Interior is preserved
The cellars of the café, actually late medieval vaults, are largely intact. The entrance to the café, with a small room and a chimney, also looks the same. “Everything that is original will be preserved. We also do not provide a structural solution in the cellars. We will of course give our cocktail bar its own face,” explains Savas Coskun.
And that own face is in the details. “There comes a flower wall, adapted furniture such as low sofas and footstools and new tables. The tap cabinet will remain, although we will remove the taps. A cocktail doesn’t come out of a tap now, does it?
Another cellar space is reserved as a place for dancing. “We intend to be open from Wednesday to Sunday. By regularly inviting a deejay, people can turn it into a dance evening. But I do not rule out the possibility that we will invite a magician or another spectacular attraction, for example.”
Chic and affordable
It is clear that Savas Coskun did not take more than one night ice cream for the concept of the new bar. “We want to turn it into a chic business where we work with the best ingredients for our cocktails. It must of course remain affordable for the customers, but those who want to make an evening beautiful can do so too. We have both a good and nicely priced cocktail and an expensive champagne on offer.”
The cocktail bar will open in mid-January under the name Fear of heights. “That’s Latin for dizzying. And that is exactly what we want to achieve. The guests who descend the stairs to the cellars must find themselves in a dizzying world. The experience is key,” says the entrepreneur.