Café Le Cirio

Café Le Cirio is distinguished by its dark, gilded wooden storefront featuring slender bronze columns and ornate caryatids. Founded in eighteen eighty-six, it occupies a prime spot near the Bourse, the city's old stock exchange. The establishment began as a retail shop and tasting room for Italian specialties, created by the Piedmontese entrepreneur Francesco Cirio. While Cirio opened eighteen similar outlets across Europe in cities like Paris and Moscow, the Brussels branch is the only one to survive into the present day.