Sometimes when you travel you come across an awesome book store or café or shop that you desperately wish you had back at home. That happened to me when I travelled to Bruges last month, where we went to Books & Brunch, a second hand book store slash lunchroom.
Not only does the store offer a wide choice of books you’re welcome to browse through when drinking your coffee, they also have pretty fantastic food and a welcoming personnel. Being lactose intolerant, it can be a bit of a pain finding out whether there is milk or cream in the dish I want to eat. The people at Books & Brunch were super understanding, and made everything as easy as possible. Our server even came up with alternatives, which hasn’t happened to me before. So, after some discussion, I was enjoying my grilled sandwich with ham and tomatoes and a caramel soy latte.
After the food it was time for some browsing. Their selection is what you’d expect from a second hand book store – many popular fiction books in paperbacks. I love how the books are EVERYWHERE. There are books on the stairs, books next to the stairs, books on tables, books on shelves… It’s a book lover’s heaven.
In case you’d like to visit Books & Brunch, you can find it at Garenmarkt 30 in Bruges.
They also have a website and Facebook, though they generally write in Dutch.
Irresponsible Cactus 
Ohhh, this looks and sounds amazing! If I’m ever in Bruges I know where I’m going to have lunch… 🙂
Definitely! And the food was super yummy too
There’s a place like this near my home in the states! “Quadrant Book Mart” in Easton PA. It’s absolutely charming.
That’s great! I wish we had something like it in my home town
That actually looks so cool!! Too bad I’m in Canda lol.
Well, if you ever decide to visit us all in Europe.. 😀
Awww this sounds like an incredible place to spend an afternoon ♥ I especially like how helpful the staff was in considering your lactose intolerance. As someone with food allergies myself, I know how challenging eating out can be, it makes me smile when people are understanding like this^^ And of course the books! The books all over the place, on lovely shelves, in stairs, by the bathrooms 😀 I love it! Thanks for sharing Celine!! xx
People can be so oblivious about food allergies. It’s not that I blame them, but it does get tiring to have to explain that there is indeed milk in yoghurt and that I can’t eat it. So it’s very refreshing to be in a place where it’s not considered a problem at all (: And the books everywhere look so pretty!
Oh this looks like a great shop, I love the combination of lucnhroom and book store and how you can check out books while eating and drinking. And that’s so fun how the books seem to be everywhere!
Yes! You can start reading a book with your coffee, and take it home with you if you like it. It’s the perfect combination