In de Vrede
Café · Flanders
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In de Vrede is the café and visitor centre of Sint-Sixtus Abbey in Westvleteren, the only place in the world licensed to serve Westvleteren Trappist beer. Alongside the 12, 8 and Blond, it serves sandwiches, farm-made ice cream and regional specialties such as hop cake and hennepot. Its green terrace, shaded by a pergola, is a popular stop for cyclists touring the Westhoek, and the car park regularly fills with both cars and bikes. It opens daily from 10 am.
In de Vrede opened in 1999 as a tasting cafe built and run by the monks across Donkerstraat from Sint-Sixtus Abbey, replacing an older visitors' room with a proper kitchen and cellar. It remains the only place in the world licensed to pour Westvleteren Trappist beer for drinking on site, brought over from the abbey a few hundred metres away. The kitchen has grown from simple soup and croque monsieur into fuller plates such as Black Angus ribeye and pork cheeks braised in Westvleteren 8, alongside the farm-made ice cream and a beer-laced sundae called the Coupe In de Vrede. Next to the dining room, an exhibition space called Het Claustrum gives a virtual look inside the monastery and explains the monks' daily life and brewing. The shop sells bottled Westvleteren alongside abbey cheese, pate and other Westhoek products to take home.
Practical
Groups are asked to reserve a table ahead of arrival.
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