Your Best Friend in Brussels

The Grand Place is perhaps Brussels’ most famed attraction. With its spired Hotel de Ville, ornate buildings, cobblestones and narrow medieval streets radiating outward, the Grand Place exudes a captivating historic aura. Right behind this engaging central square stands Hotel Amigo, a splendid property with a colorful history of its own, stretching 500 years into the past.

Part of Rocco Forte Hotels, Hotel Amigo is housed inside a former prison whose nickname was Amigo when Belgium was part of the Spanish Netherlands during the 16th century. The property has held its current incarnation since 1957, when the Blaton family converted the landmark structure into a hotel to host royals and celebrities for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair.

Rocco Forte Hotels currently operates 14 hotels across the globe, including Hotel Amigo. Some of the prestigious properties that form part of their portfolio include Hotel de Russie in Rome, The Balmoral in Edinburgh and Villa Kennedy in Frankfurt. While the properties are all different – each gleans a significant portion of its identity from the city in which it serves – there are some commonalities: top-of-the-line food and drink, spacious and elegant design, exceptional location and a signature Anglo-Italian style. Hotel Amigo, like its sister properties, encompasses all aspects of the Rocco Forte philosophy.

Sleeping in Style

Hotel Amigo is home to 154 guestrooms and 19 suites, including the spectacular top-floor Armand Blaton Suite, named after the hotel’s founders and replete with art pieces from the Blaton family’s private collection. The rooms were all created by Rocco Forte Hotels’ design director Olga Polizzi, sister of founder and chairman Sir Rocco Forte. Polizzi’s design nods to the city of Brussels include artworks by René Magritte, Art Nouveau-inspired touches and even Tintin cartoons on the bathroom walls. “Brussels always gives me inspiration: wonderful antique shops and the Grand Place, as stunning and perfect a square as any I have seen,” said Polizzi. Many of the rooms and suites boast views of the Grand Place’s distinctive structures and of Brussels itself, so that the city is your constant companion.

Sips and Nibbles

The hotel’s star restaurant is Bocconi, where superlative Italian dishes are created using Belgian ingredients. Spacious and doused in various shades of blue, Bocconi offers an ever-changing menu that may include traditional lasagna, risotto with leek and red mullet or tonnarelli cacio e pepe with red prawns. You can also opt for fish (sole, turbot) or meat (pork, lamb, veal) dishes. Desserts include tiramisu, rum baba and waffles with ricotta and figs. Bocconi also hosts the daily breakfast buffet, which includes a succulent spread of cheese, charcuterie, cereal, bread, jam and much more.

Then there’s Bar A, the incredibly popular lobby bar where guests and locals congregate at all times, but especially in the early evening, after working hours. With its plush, orange-hued chairs and large windows overlooking Brussels’ cobblestone streets, Bar A enjoys a setting that few other establishments can match. In addition to light bar fare, the place serves some of the city’s best cocktails, including the Prescription Julep, made with cognac, rye whiskey, fresh mint, sugar and soda water, and Frozen Bubbles, prepared with Armagnac, hibiscus syrup and champagne. Bar A also serves a decadent Chocolate Afternoon Tea, featuring a variety of chocolate drinks plus pralines and sweets by celebrated Belgian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini.

Walking the City

A stay at Hotel Amigo also places all of Brussels’ wonders within your reach. A one-minute walk takes you to the Grand Place and to the fascinating Museum of the City of Brussels, while the iconic Manneken Pis is three minutes by foot. Nearby attractions also include the Fondation Jacques Brel, dedicated to the country’s most illustrious crooner, and the GardeRobe Manneken Pis, where you can admire the statue dressed in a multitude of costumes. Famed Brussels museums, including the Magritte Museum, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and many more, are a 10-minute walk away.

A one-minute walk takes you to the Grand Place, while the iconic Mannekin Pis is three minutes by foot

No visit to Brussels would be complete without a gourmand sampling of chocolate. Right outside Hotel Amigo you’ve got Neuhaus, Godiva, Galler and Leonidas, plus more niche offerings like Chocopolis, Elisabeth, Darcis and Passion Chocolat. Be sure to drop by Maison Dandoy to try their legendary speculoos. You’ll find it hard to leave Hotel Amigo, but a good supply of chocolate and speculoos might just sweeten your farewells.

Visit roccofortehotels.com/hotels-and-resorts/hotel-amigo

Words Marwan Naaman