The Bortier Gallery reopens with a controversial cocktail combining second-hand booksellers and restaurants: “Old books don’t go well with the smell of frying”

The “L”-shaped corridor wakes up from November 22, 2024 in a Brussels-style melting pot. The concept: combining the tradition of second-hand booksellers and hospitality innovation. Alongside the bookstores, there is now a bar open in the corridor, a “literary café”, a butcher, cheese makers or a Lebanese place. This positioning is not self-evident. Some tenants of this discreet gallery halfway between Mont des Arts and Grand-Place have cleared the floor. An Italian grocery store has eclipsed BD specialist La Crypte Tonique. And then, the catering use of the place, property of the land management of the City of Brussels, is even the subject of a complaint from IEB. Work was allegedly carried out without a permit. Since the announcement of the reallocation, detractors have pointed to “a strong imbalance between culture and hospitality”.

“Horeca accessories”

Recovered, designer Thierry Goor has had enough of the attacks. “We must stop pretending that culture is a pretext here,” he storms. “Moreover, we are going to award a literary prize from November 27. This is a first in the entire history of the gallery.” Regarding IEB’s complaint, Goor is not angry: “every day, they are here with a camera, browsing. If they continue, I risk filing a complaint for harassment.” He defines: “legally, we open ‘accessory’ catering. It’s like a wine merchant who can take out tables. In the PRAS, the gallery is classified G: it is a commercial gallery. We have a commercial lease with the City. There is therefore no question of considering Galerie Bortier as a food market such as Wolf, another creation of the boss. In the spirit of the founder, like at a caterer, you will come here to buy your meal to take away. Or we’ll eat it at the end of the table.

The strong argument is Kawa Club, intended as “a literary café”. “In terms of m2, we therefore have more book space than before,” measures Thierry Goor. Vintage floral wallpaper, club armchairs, bench seating, walls lined with shelves: the place must allow customers to sit down with a book and a pastry. “But we will do much more than drinks and cakes,” promises Vincent Dujardin, at the helm of this vast cell “empty for 25 years”. Thus, the operator “is finalizing a partnership with a team who will bring the place to life: reading, theater, music. We will not just sit down with a coffee. There will be culture. Hence this aesthetic of old English bookstore”, argues Dujardin. “Afterwards, we go next door to take home a bottle of natural wine and some cold meats.”

“Not clean enough”

On her threshold, bookseller Fanny Génicot points with her chin to a woman who, glass in one hand, leans her elbow on the pages of her paperback books. “The place will change radically,” laments the one whose mother “is at the origin of the classification” of the gallery. Its sign, which smells of yellowed pages, now opens just above the counter from which craft beers and rum cocktails will come out of the fridge. “I’m afraid he’ll get in the way when there are people,” she asks. Génicot undermines the arguments of a moribund gallery. “I’ve never sold better than recently. I’m not getting rich, but I’m living. It’s true, it’s not too bling-bling here. Maybe too old-fashioned, not clean enough for the new generations” . She is “waiting to see” if the new restaurants “will reach people more inclined to go to books” than to coupettes. “It’s being sold as a new milestone between the upper part of the city, the Sablon and the lower part of the city, to re-attract a more affluent clientele.”

In the eyes of Thierry Goor, the booksellers’ proposals to revive the neo-Renaissance marbles remained too conservative. “They offered public toilets, a display for visit.brussels flyers, better signage and the offices of the Book Fair. That’s not how you revive a gallery,” believes the one who, with his food market Fox, managed to get the people of Brussels moving to the former Royale Belge in Watermael-Boitsfort. Fanny Génicot admits. “Our ideas remained in culture: the book, the printed image, the old photo. But the small traders are not heard. We have been asking to be on the Winter Wonders route for 10 years. “was never received by the Mayor. We had to wait for Mr. Goor to arrive, with his commercial clout.” This winter, in fact, the gallery will be occupied by creators during three Christmas market weekends. A little further down, rue de la Madeleine, the artisans of Bortier will exhibit in chalets. “But Plaisirs d’Hiver is not culture: it’s commerce,” squeaks the bookseller. “I’m not a fan of chalets everywhere all the time.”

Grilled octopus

Neighboring the old books of the prestigious antique dealer Pierre Coomans, it is César Lewandowski, star of culinary reality TV, who opened Polpo, a “counter” focused on seafood. This incongruous neighborhood clearly illustrates the contrast, as deep as an ocean, of the new Bortier Gallery. “Octopus,” laughs Fanny Génicot. “But old books don’t go well with fried smells.” While waiting for the chef who “returns from Paris”, Adrien Labriffe serves the first grilled octopus from his new address, accompanied by potato spumante, black olive confit and lemon. “Moving into this historic gallery is important to us.” The operator believes in it: “We are going to revitalize the passage, in collaboration with the booksellers who remain”. At the Kawa Club, Vincent Dujardin is committed: “No invasive food market here: we adapt to the place. We do not want to impose a new standard. We also met with the booksellers to reassure them. There was hatred. We want things to remain calm here, while sharing a heritage which, otherwise, would be doomed to remain unknown. A “quarantine” of full-time workers would have already been created.

In the spirit of the times, the concept is not as innovative as it might seem. “In Paris too, second-hand bookstores have given in to the catering industry. The idea is a copy. It comes from elsewhere, as always in Brussels,” notes Fanny Génicot. Who, chatting from Paris, regrets: “We had a lot of filming here. We even had ‘Emily in Paris’. All that is over.”