The Dynamo Bar in the St. Gilles neighbourhood was the venue for the Croatian “tap takeover”.
The Croat community in Brussels, which is not small at all after five years of Croatian membership in the European Union, watched the World Cup match against Denmark on Sunday evening at several venues across the city. The atmosphere was festive and joyful everywhere, but there was just one bar in the Belgian and European capital which served exclusively Croatian beers, reports Večernji List on July 2, 2018.
The Dynamo Bar in the St. Gilles neighbourhood served this weekend Croatian craft beers. The Croatian “tap takeover” was led by Tomislav Špoljarić, one of the Croats who work in Brussels and who is an enthusiast of craft beers.
“This is the first Croatian ‘tap takeover’ in Brussels and in Belgium. We brought here three beer-producers from Zagreb, with 15 beers in total. The goal was to gather the Croatian community living in Brussels, socialize, drink Croatian beers, listen to Croatian music and watch football. This is just the beginning, there will be many more such ‘tap takeovers’. For this premier edition, I brought the Medvedgrad brewery, because it has been the oldest craft brewery since 1994 and is the most consistent in production, as well as Nova Runda, which in my opinion produces the best craft beers in Croatia, and Primarijus, which was established just recently, maybe eight or nine months ago. We wanted to support them since as a small brewery they would probably never have the opportunity to export their beer to a market such as Belgium,” explained Špoljarić.
The Dynamo Bar is actually one of few, if not the only bar in Brussels which readily presents foreign craft beers. Belgians, who have enough of their own excellent premium beers, are not particularly open to experimenting with foreign craft breweries, but the Dynamo Bar is an exception.
Among other venues in Brussels where Croatian fans gather to watch football matches is the newly-opened Istrian restaurant Maison d’Istrie and the Croatian wine bar Bois Tranquile, while the futsal club Croatia Bruxelles organized a football party at the Casa Mundial Bar.
Translated from Večernji List (reported by Tomislav Krasnec).
