La Lunette

So many bars, so many beers, so little time.  So what do you do as a bar owner in Brussels to try and attract new customers?  Well, you know that in Belgium every beer should be served in its own special glass.  And if you didn't know, then you soon will: witness the bartender apologising when he doesn't have the appropriate receptacle for your hallowed beer of dark, creamy loveliness.  Just don't venture that it doesn't matter what glass it is in: it does matter, more than you can imagine!  


If you're the owners of La Lunette, you decide that the best way to get the tourists in is to serve their beer of choice in a really, really huge glass.  And this time for me it was Leffe Brune, the beer of fancy.   How big is big?  Well, one litre allegedly.  But appearances can be deceptive, and the glass size seems to fluctuate before my eyes as I make my slow progress.  I would like to subject the glass to further scientific analysis, as my rational self is expecting a gimmick here.  Can it really be cheaper to buy a 12 euro Lunette than, err, several glasses of normal Leffe?  Possibly not, but this is a tradition dating from 1953 and I suppose they think a large glass is more exciting.

Anyway I proceed methodically, and take my time. The beer is drunk slowly, my brain is working sluggishly and I look into the beer's murky depths for inspiration as I talk.  It doesn't come.



Reading your fortune in a lunette beer glass

I've done it once; I don't think I'll do it again.  The bar is a bit bland and I disapprove of the stern notice warning consumers that broken Lunettes must be replaced at great cost.  So easily broken..... Don't let me stop you trying one (they're 24 euros for 2, depending on which beer you have).  But better still, track down a normal-sized kwak glass which will catch out the unsuspecting drinker!  And there are plenty of other curious-shaped glasses to try.


What is a lunette?