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Together with the cafés and restaurants, the daily special also disappears
Wishful thinking
Together with the cafés and the restaurants, the daily special has also disappeared in our village. However, I had always thought that, once we were retired, we would go out for lunch more often.
Not having to cook, getting outside, having a chat with acquaintances and strangers. Just enjoying a simple meal in the village. But we hadn’t reckoned with reality.
Where have all the restaurants and cafés gone to?
In our village, all cafés and restaurants have disappeared one by one.
The restaurant where you could eat the dish of the day was always full for lunch, but has been closed for a long time now.
Another business has been looking for a buyer for years, but no one has ventured into it.
And the local café, annex trinket shop, will probably stop as soon as the owners stop. And knowing there were no less than six cafés when we came to live here.
The phenomenon is not limited to our village; it is typical for the whole of Belgium.
What’s more, I would even dare to say that it is typical for the whole of Europe. Because when we cycle through the Netherlands and France, we see exactly the same thing.
And since the corona pandemic, the decline of the café and restaurant business seems to have accelerated exponentially, with an increasing number of closures in recent years.
A lunch that suddenly becomes luxurious
Of course, you can still find many restaurants in big cities such as Ghent, Antwerp or coastal cities such as Ostend, but honest, nutritious and at the same time affordable food has become scarcer.
The restaurants with a daily special that are recommended in the community apps of the Ghent and Antwerp Reddit users usually only have an average score of 3.5 out of 5 on Tripadvisor. (I checked). I hear you say: “you get what you pay for”, and of course, you’re right, but daily specials are also supposed to be tasty, right?
If you set the bar a little higher, and you eat in a brasserie, you shoud reckon with 20 and 30 Euros for a dish. Add a drink and multiply this by four people, and you will soon pay up to 150 euros for a ‘normal’ one-course bistro lunch for four.
No wonder alternatives are becoming so popular. Apps such as Too Good To Go and the catering departments of supermarkets offer meals for less than ten euros. For many people, this is an attractive alternative.
The daily special: fast food of the past
There was a time when almost every village had a place where you could eat a dish of the day around noon. No fancy menu, no culinary show. Just a plate of solid food: soup, a main course and sometimes a dessert. Simple, fair and affordable.
The daily special was actually the Belgian fast food of the past. You came in, there was usually only one dish, and often it was on the table within five minutes. Ideal for workers, sales representatives and people on a short lunch break.
The menu was usually not even on paper. Outside was a chalkboard on which was written in chalk what came on the table that day. In many cafés, everyone even knew in advance what was being served on which day.
Grandmother’s kitchen
The dishes were often real classics from the home-style kitchen:
stew with fries, spaghetti Bolognese, meatballs in tomato sauce or chicory with ham and cheese.
In many cafés and restaurants, it was not even the patron himself behind the stove, but his mother or mother-in-law. That may explain why those daily specials so often tasted like grandmother’s cuisine.
The portions were usually generous. No one was allowed to leave the restaurant hungry. And you could just keep asking for bread.
More than just a meal
The daily special was more than a plate of food. It was a daily ritual.
Workmen, pensioners, representatives and local residents of all ages came together there. Sometimes you just sat at the table with strangers when it was busy. This created conversations between people who would otherwise never meet.
In industrial cities such as Ghent, the lunch crowds could be spectacular. When factories and offices took a break, cafés and restaurants filled up and dozens of meals were served in an hour.
For some customers, it was even a daily appointment. The manager often knew what they wanted even before they had said anything.
“As always?”
“As always.”
And a daily special used to include a beer, and sometimes a small digestif afterwards. They were small things, but they made people stay seated, talk a bit and the café became the heart of the village for a while.
Together with the cafés and restaurants, the daily special also disappears
Today, that image has become rare. When the last café in our village closes its doors, a void will be left behind. Then our village will really become a food desert. It already feels that way.
You hear that term popping up more and more often: food deserts: or areas where you can hardly find food, cafés or restaurants.
In cities such as Ghent, Antwerp or Ostend, this trend is less visible for the time being. But in rural areas, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a hot meal outside the home.
Where a plate of stew or vol-au-vent used to be served for a price that didn’t shock anyone, you may now find a pitta, a chip shop, a sandwich shop… or nothing at all.
What strikes me is that chip shops and sandwich shops are so popular these days. To such an extent that I even dare to say that going to a restaurant has been replaced by going to the chip shop or the sandwich shop.
Here in the area you will find no less than five fry shops within reasonable driving distance. A pack of French fries can taste good, sure, but I wouldn’t do it every week like some do. And an old-fashioned slice of bread can be just as tasty as a fancy sandwich from the snack bar. You only need to butter or top your own bread.
Why so many restaurants and cafés are disappearing
It is no coincidence that restaurants and cafés are disappearing. Several factors come together:
- High costs: rent, energy, staff and ingredients have risen sharply.
- Fewer customers: People eat out less often and pay more attention to their budget.
- Competition from supermarkets and takeaway.
- Lack of successors: running a catering business requires long days and a lot of responsibility.
- Staff shortage: many businesses have difficulty finding staff and are forced to attract employees from abroad.
And yes, that’s why café and restaurant staff nowadays increasingly address you in English..
Home cooking is on the rise again
My response? I have started cooking more. Now that I have time, I can even make more labor-intensive meals.
Honestly? Cooking will never be my biggest hobby, but it is satisfying to prepare a nice meal for others.
Maybe that’s why so many people are cooking more at home again. Not because it’s cheaper, but because that feeling of eating together feels important.
More than a plate of food
The disappearance of cafés and restaurants means more than fewer places to eat. It also means: fewer places to meet, to really see people, share stories. With every business that closes, a small piece of that social fabric disappears.
Today, apps and screens seem to have replaced those kinds of encounters. You no longer have to leave the house to make contact with others.
But the deep, spontaneous conversations that you do have in a café, over a pint or a glass of wine, rarely arise via a screen.
Perhaps that is what we miss most today: not only the cafés and restaurants, but the places where the people in the village found each other. No app can come between that!
Emma
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