The De Brouckere Brussels Grill is so much smaller than the Rogier Brussels Grill but also seems more empty as well. Maybe that’s because the Rogier restaurant is bordered by so many large hotels—the Thon, the Sheraton, the Hilton, whereas Brouckere only really has the Metropol. Always interesting to remember that the Gare du Nord used to be here at Rogier, when it was the northern-most edge of Brussels; but as the city expanded, they had to move the Nord station a few hundred metres further north. I still like to imagine the Nord Station is here though. There we go. I like second hand bookshops more than new bookshops; I like old crackly classical music recordings from the 20s more than new ones; I like old 20s and 30s jazz more than the sleek new jazz; like old curtain-opening strip clubs more than the new private dancing men-as-cash machines new ones. I like old Victorian lush green river valleys filled with torrential rivers rather than the dessicated dried out dead riverbeds we have now. I was born 100 years too late.
The Stripper 