brussels – I like it

Hi Tommaso, tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

I was born here! Strange for a guy with an Italian name, but my story is like this. Bruxellois dans le coeur et dans l’âme, but a real Italian in my way of being! My life is a melting pot of Italy, Brussels and Southern Europe with the Brazilian joy of life and craziness that I had the chance to get during my Erasmus in Sao Paulo!

Now I’m working for Full Circle, a new ideas club, where we invite inspiring speakers from all around the world to share their ideas with the Brussels community!

Which part of Brussels is your favorite, and why?

My favorite spots in Brussels are the parks. In fact, Brussels is very green and we should all go and relax in one of the city’s parks. Parc Josaphat, Parc de la Woluwé and Bois de la Cambres are a must for a relaxing afternoon walk. Tervuren park is great, because if the day starts with the sun and then suddenly it starts raining, you can go inside the Museum of Central Africa which it’s located inside the park and spend the rest of the day there!

If you want to party in a park, let’s wait till mid-May when the season of the PiKniK Elektronik will start again with Les Apéros Urbains in the best squares of Brussels!

Where do you like to hangout?

The perfect day starts at Parc Josaphat which is just in front of my house in Schaerbeek, taking couques et croissant at the bakery Vandender. After the brunch, a coffee with a fresh raspberry juice at Belga is my next stop, especially if I went out the night before at LOVE or FUSE. Then I walk around Matongé, Maison Renardy is a must, for a lovely coffee stop in an “ambiance retro”.

If I want to travel around the world in one day I’ll start doing some purchases at the Bio Market des Tanneurs dans les Marolles, eat a Bagel at L’Atelier en Ville – their bagels are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Next stop Ethiopia, at Aksum, the best Italian style espresso in town and my journey will finish in South America having a beer at MappaMundo, listening to their Jam Session on Sunday late afternoon!

What do you show a tourist?

I’m the biggest tourist in Brussels! Every weekend I go around the city. First stop Sablon, explaining them what real chocolate is by passing by Pierre Marcolini, to say hi to my ex colleagues and trying some pralines (le câlin is my favorite, crunchy and with caramel!!!). Then we have a look at the vitrine of Patrick Roger (amazing artiste-chocolatier-sculpteur) and all the nice houses of the old Brussels. Then I go to Mont des Arts to show the view, down to Grand Place explaining them the crazy story of the hotel de ville and the legend of his architect! Last stop is a MUST: a selfie with The Manneken Pis!

Culinary stop at RestoBières – every dish is cooked with a different beer – or at La Fin de Siècle. If you feel having some typical fries, go to Flagey Frit Kot during the weekend, Maison Antoine during the week and Tabora at any time at night every single day! Tabora offers more than 60 different sauces, be curious and ask advices – mine is curry ketchup or sauce toscane!

If you have a lot of time and want to see a big part of Brussels, take tram 7 and go to Atomium, you will be amazed by the beauty of this tram journey.

Name someone from Brussels who you think deserves more attention?

My friend Manu aka 13 Pulsions – great illustrator of today’s faces!

Gioia Seghers – Fashion Designer!

(written in 2015 – for The Hive Brussels, which unfortunately closed down)

For our new year eve we finally chose to go to Deep in House, which was on our top 3 events to say goodbye to 2016. Fuse had a great lineup, but for sure it would have been too packed, F*ck New Year you find too many young teenagers and students that have one of their first techno “rave kind of party”. Nevertheless, when we went in 2015 to F*ck New Year we had a good night: no queue to go in, to buy drinks, and it was easy to find your space to chill and relax between two acts. Palais 12 is a great concert venue!

Going back to our Deep in House event, we can say the organisers chose a fantastic location*, they were brave to organise their new year party here. In fact, to metamorphose a public space in 2 days time into a techno venue was a big challenge. Protecting all the colons with adhesive paper and the pavement with plastic, cancelled the acoustic problem of the gallery, (well done!), but the aeration of the room and its hidden women toilets, bar and cloakroom were a mess! How we got in was terrible: we bought our ticket online with a few drink tickets and untill here nothing to complain… so far so good! But waiting 30 minutes in line around 1.30 to 2am didn’t make sense. To make two queues to get in and then make an other 20 minutes queue to leave your coat and bags, that were lost and hard to get back in not acceptable.

People came for the music and to celebrate 2017 not to wait for every basic demand that all party lovers are expecting such as beer, bottled water, spirits and fast line to toilets.

Talking about the music, the people and the lights, we have to confess that the party was fun and with a good mood. People were loosing themselves with the music and danced together, jumping around, smiling (we saw so many 🙂 faces), lost eyes, drunk people and great dancers. The music was very fast and hard, being at the end of the room next to 2 Funktione One systems was really good! It was not at all deep in house as the name of the organizers claims, but really pure Berliner Techno inside a dark environment where you could not really see the DJ from the end of the room, but you had to go closer to him. From our position we had a great view over the crowd and the lazer light was making a great effect!

Around 3am the venue was packed and was submerged by a cloud of smoke – people became more and more excited by jumping all over and making the night memorable!

In conclusion, if you went there for the music and only that, forgetting about the entrance, the facilities and the services… the party was great and it’s a go-to place for the next party – if you take into consideration the rest of the aspects… forget it.

We need more people to take over the place such event more frequently in the future!

*The Horta Gallery is a “forgot” tunnel connecting the Gare Centrale to Place d’Espagne in front of les Galleries Agora next to la Grand Place, renewed in 2009. Unfortunately, almost every stores closed down just a bit after their opening dur to a lack of promotion and its hidden location.