Thursday, May 15, 2008

Belgium Ave, New York, NY

How much longer before there is  a Belgium Ave in New York?  There's an Amsterdam Ave.  And while the Dutch founded New Amsterdam (now known as New York) not many people know that some of the pioneers that settled New York where actually Walloons and Flemings.
Today it feels like 'Les Petits Belges' are more than ever present in the streets of New York.  There's an abundance of Belgian restaurants and bars.  La Petite Abeille serves very decent mussels with delicious homemade mayonnaise!  Le Pain Quotidien is all over the place with more than 15 locations. One of which is part of the company I work for.  Home-made belgian waffles with a discount!  Inbev is marketing their products aggressively which results in a selection of about 7 or 8 Belgian beers at almost every grocery store.  Duvel, Hoegaarden, Leffe and Stella all over the place!
The Flemish politicians worry about the image of Flanders in the world.  And honestly, maybe they should.  Belgium is a strong brand name and anything labeled with 'made in Belgium' is held in high regard over here.  Unfortunately the same cannot be said about Flanders.  It's not too well known.  Most people know that there are 2 regions in Belgium, a flemish and a french one, and that Flanders was prosperous in the Middle Ages.  Flemish painters, tapestries and Bruges are well know, but that's about it.  Americans know and love Brussels, Belgian chocolates, Tintin and waffles.  They don't know BHV, CD&V or VB.  And frankly, they shouldn't.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

A duvel in the states.

Nog maar twee weekjes en het is zover

C ya mate
BN

fred at thedrawingfarm said...

we're unstoppable!
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080612/D918GF9G0.html

http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie/economie/080611_InBev_AnheuserBusch

honestly though, i'm not entirely convinced that all these mergers and this beer globalization is such a good thing. Local beers are a great taste of 'couleur locale' and even if an American Stella bottle says 'brewed in Leuven' it still doesn't taste exactly like what you'd drink 'oep een zonnig terraske'.