Antwerp's drinking culture runs deep and broad — De Koninck Bolleke is the local everyday beer, but the Trappists and lambic specialists are equally well represented, and the city has a strong cocktail and natural wine scene running alongside.
The classic Antwerp bar experience is sitting on the Grote Markt or Groenplaats with a Bolleke, but the best places sit just off the main squares. Kulminator has 700+ Belgian beers with aged Trappist vintages going back decades. Café Beveren houses a working 1937 mechanical dance organ that plays for a one-euro coin. Het Elfde Gebod, behind the Cathedral, is packed wall-to-ceiling with religious statuary. The brewery itself, De Koninck, runs tours and tastings on the south side of town.
For coffee and cake, the small cafés around Vrijdagmarkt and Hendrik Conscience Square are reliable. The fashion-design quarter on Nationalestraat has a younger, more design-forward set of places.