Object #44 - Pistolet Original Belgian Hot Dog

21st century

City Life

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Parisian writer Gérard de Nerval knew what to eat while visiting Brussels, rhapsodising in 1853 about a “a[n] authentic mug of faro, accompanied by one of these….pistolets which open in two sandwiches garnished with butter.” Belgium’s baked goods are often overshadowed by those from its hexagonal neighbour, but de Nerval knew the value of the humble pistolet - a small, round white roll with a little cleft down the middle.

Entrepreneur Valerie Lepla did too, so much so she opened the Pistolet Original sandwicherie in Brussels’ Sablon neighbourhood in 2013, selling only pistolets - albeit gourmet versions thereof. And like de Nerval, Lepla knew they paired well with Lambic. Faro having disappeared from modern-day Brussels, she stocked her fridge with Brasserie Cantillon’s Kriek and Gueuze alongside “Pistolet Original” editions of Brasserie de la Senne’s Taras Boulba. Not stopping there, in 2016 she launched a Belgian Hot Dog Pistolet stuffed with sauerkraut cooked in Cantillon Lambic. Lepla then joined forces with chef Dirk Myny of nearby restaurant Les Brigittines to create with Cantillon an exclusive Geuze called Chouke, made with equal parts one-, two-, and three-year old Lambics aged partly in Armagnac barrels.

Now, Lepla’s close cooperation with a local brewery might seem unexceptional. But in 2013, it was still a relative novelty. As any frustrated Belgian beer sommelier knows, the country’s chefs have historically treated beer with an indifference bordering on hostility. Some of this is classist, beer being a drink for the café not fine dining. What’s more, the country’s culinary schools have long placed wine on an unwarranted pedestal, relegating beer to an afterthought.

But there were exceptions. Chefs thoughtful about the beers they served, eager to incorporate beer into their dishes, and eventually becoming evangelists for beer gastronomy. Alain Fayt was an early proselytiser, preaching from his Marollen-based Restobières restaurant since 1987. Olivier Desmet was another, opening Nüetnigenough in a tiny city-centre dining room in 2008. Myny’s Les Brigittines championed cooking with, and serving, Lambic, and the restaurant was a regular haunt of Brussels’ small coterie of brewers.

Pistolet Original arrived just as the city’s culinary establishment was waking up to Brussels’ brewing revival. Lepla’s (and Desmet’s, and Myny’s) approach to beer has since, if not quite the rule, become less the exception it used to be. Good, modern beer is no longer unwelcome in Brussels’ restaurants, chefs are becoming more involved in the city’s beer scene, and the traditional lines separating breweries and restaurants are blurring.

La Fruitiere, for example, has shelves with new wave Brussels beer and developed with Cantillon a Lambic-infused Tomme infused. Neocantine Liesse, like Pistolet Original, has brewed an in-house beer with Nanobrasserie L’Ermitage. La Tana, a Roman trattoria, excels in serving contemporary Italian, Belgian, and European beer.

Breweries are elbowing in too. In 2019 the Pasta Madre pizzeria opened, a three-way collaboration between Cantillon’s Jean Van Roy, Moeder Lambic’s Jean Hummler, and Bolognese pizzaïolo Francesco Oppido - with Lambic on the menu, and Lambic (or, at least, Lambic yeast) in the pizzas.