4 Best Bars in Laeken and Schaerbeek, Brussels

An intriguing neighborhood wine bar that does a roaring trade in crowd-pleasing sharing plates, from shiitake arancini to frites drizzled in Parmesan and truffle. It's mostly good-quality French wines, though you can just as easily bag a beer or kombucha. 

A brand-new local brewery and tap house set in a former stables. This used to be where they kept the mules that pulled Schaerbeek's trams until the first electric line was installed in 1894. Now tables have been strewn across the old stable yard, and its friendly, mulleted owner pours out glasses of his own brewed German-style wheat beers, along with the odd saison and lager. 

An excellent and discreet neighborhood cocktail bar buried among the houses a street back from Parc Josephat. It's surprisingly good given its location and dishes up drinks with no little amount of flair.  

A great little local beer bar with an excellent selection of bottled and draft (usually around 20) brews, all typically from the smaller breweries that don't find their way onto most bar menus.