Ghent coffee guide: the AeroPress champion and her neighbours

Ghent has three roasters that roast in the city and pour at their own bars: WAY at Dok Noord, Full Circle in its bar in Zuid, and Vandekerckhove, which has roasted here since 1854. OR Coffee Roasters, the Belgian roaster where WAY’s founder learned the trade, serves its own coffee at its Coffee Lab in the university quarter. Around them, seven cafés pour coffee roasted elsewhere: a gallery bar with five roasters on rotation, a corner bar in a former ironmonger’s, a bar between the cathedral and Gerard the Devil’s Castle, a pair of espresso bars playing jazz, a sourdough bakery, an Argentinian coffee shop and a vegan patisserie. WAY, Full Circle and Catberry are fully plant-based.

WAY Specialty Coffee Roasters, Dok Noord and three more locations

WAY Specialty Coffee Roasters was started in 2017 by Charlene De Buysere, who trained as an interior designer, learned coffee at OR Coffee in Ghent and became World AeroPress Champion in Portland in 2012, after Belgian titles in AeroPress, barista and brewers’ competitions. After a year of pop-ups she opened WAY at Dok Noord, a former industrial site on the edge of the city, where the espresso bar looks onto the roaster and the team roasts small batches every week. Ward De Corte runs the roastery and buys the green coffee. Everything in the bars is plant-based. WAY Keizerpoort, by the Franse Vaart, opened in 2021 as a bakery and has baked sourdough since November 2024; the shop in the centre sells the full range of beans with a bookshop upstairs; and Jakobijn, the most central bar, has a terrace. Each bag carries four symbols Charlene designed for sweet, fruity, acidity and spicy, and most coffees are roasted separately for espresso and filter. The house espresso is Brazil Bota Fora, a pulped natural Yellow Bourbon.

Full Circle Coffee, Zuid and Gent-Sint-Pieters

Full Circle Coffee began with Ezra, a barista and roaster who ran pop-up coffee bars in Ghent for several years before opening the bar in Zuid in 2016. Since August 2021 the coffee has been roasted in that bar, on a Probat by the entrance, for espresso and filter alike, with no blends. Every drink is vegan, made with Oatly oat milk or TipToh pea milk, and so are the donuts and cakes. Filter coffee is brewed by hand on V60 in Zuid and as batch brew at Full Circle Astrid, the second bar, opened in November 2022 near Gent-Sint-Pieters station, with a La Marzocco on a concrete bar the team poured themselves. Dogs are welcome, and there is a dog bar.

Koffiebranderij Vandekerckhove, city centre

Koffiebranderij Vandekerckhove has roasted coffee in Ghent since 1854, and the family is in its fifth generation. Louis roasts in 22-kilo drums, and for years the roastery has bought only organic and Fair Trade coffee. “Niet doen” (“don’t”), his father said when Louis joined the business; Louis brought in barista Anna, and the family shop in the city centre became a coffee bar. The shelves hold single origins from Ethiopia, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Java, a Mountain Water decaf from Mexico and house blends such as Melange Rimbaud, Louis’ top blend since 2005. All of them can be ground to order. The teas are packed under the face of Oscar Wilde, born in 1854, the year the roastery was founded, and the shop is the official distributor of Hario, Chemex, AeroPress and Able Brewing.

OR Coffee Roasters, the Coffee Lab in the university quarter

OR Coffee Roasters was started by Tom Janssen and Katrien Pauwels in a small shop in Aalst and opened its first coffee bar in Ghent. After 11 years of running four espresso bars, the couple handed them to a new owner to concentrate on sourcing and roasting, and OR now runs the OR Coffee Lab in Ghent. Around 98% of the coffee is bought directly, in nine of its eleven origin countries, and it is roasted light, by hand, on Probats of 22 and 60 kilos. At the Lab the baristas brew the latest single origins on V60, Chemex and AeroPress as well as espresso, and the kitchen serves all-day breakfast and lunch made from scratch. A second Coffee Lab is planned for Antwerp.

tds., Footnote Gallery

tds. is the coffee bar inside Footnote Gallery, run by Hanne and Kurt, who quit their jobs, travelled in a van and started measuring the total dissolved solids of their morning coffee, the number that gave the bar its name. It always works with five roasters and changes the coffees every few months without restocking: one single-origin espresso, a decaf and three filters on the limited menu, and a house blend for the daily espresso drinks. Recent bags have come from Boo Coffee Roasters in Belgium, Nomad in Barcelona, Goût & Co in China, Tanat in France and the French decaf roaster Les Révélations. The beans are sold whole only, part of each batch goes into the freezer, and private table sessions for up to six guests cover tasting, brewing and pairing.

Café Labath, Sint-Michielsbrug

Café Labath is a specialty coffee bar on a corner a few steps from Sint-Michielsbrug, near the Sint-Lucas art college, in a former ironmonger’s whose big shop windows were kept, with hanging plants and red accents inside and an outdoor area. It serves espresso and slow coffee, with special lattes, and takes no reservations. The house also lets three guest rooms.

Peaberry Coffeebar, Saint Bavo’s Cathedral

Peaberry Coffeebar sits between Saint Bavo’s Cathedral and Gerard the Devil’s Castle, with a terrace and a small park across the street. It opened in July 2015 and reopened, renovated, 35 metres along the same street in July 2024; Laurence De Jonghe owns it. All of the coffee comes from Caffenation in Antwerp, a partnership from the first day, and the breakfast menu grows into brunch every day, without reservations. Since 2018 Peaberry has trained baristas, both through a certified course with the Centrum voor Avondonderwijs and through two-evening latte art classes. Laptops are welcome during office hours, with at least one order an hour.

Take Five Espressobar, De Krook and the city centre

Take Five Espressobar has two bars, one by De Krook and one in the city centre, with jazz in the background and no reservations. The coffee comes from De Witte Zwaan, a family roastery founded in 1902 and based in Eeklo since 1928, now run by Pieter-Jan, the fifth generation, and Nele, and the origins are chosen with the roaster by harvest season. The chalkboard gives the origin and brew method of the pour-over; the bar by De Krook adds batch brew, a nitro cold brew and lunch, and both serve breakfast.

SMØRBRØD, Gent-Zuid

SMØRBRØD is a sourdough bakery and coffee bar near Gent-Zuid, De Krook and the Zuidpark. Tomas started baking from a rye starter in the winter of 2019, and in February 2023 the bakery moved into the building that once housed De Superette and opened its coffee bar beside an open bakery, where the bakers make the next day’s dough in view of the tables. The espresso is selected and roasted by Rush Rush in Antwerp, and rotating roasters supply the filter. Loaves are made from the starter, stone-ground organic flour, water and sea salt, and the kitchen keeps to breakfast, soup and focaccia sandwiches. The name is Norwegian for a slice of bread with butter.

Goya Coffee, Kunstenkwartier

Goya Coffee is the coffee shop of Martin, who grew up in the Argentinian city of Goya, and Keri. Martin started the coffee truck in 2019 and the shop followed in 2020, with a take-away counter as well. The coffee comes from the direct-trade programme of OR Coffee Roasters, on a Rocket Espresso machine, as flat whites or single origins on slow coffee. With it come mate and the food of the Argentinian merienda: chipas, alfajores filled with dulce de leche and empanadas, made on the spot. Local artists show their work on the walls.

Catberry, Zuid

Catberry is the plant-based patisserie and coffee bar of Amélie Badie, who has baked cakes to order since July 2017 and opened the bar in 2022. Everything is vegan, from the cupcakes, brownies and carrot cake on the counter to the brunch and the high teas, which are booked ahead. The coffee is a Brazil roasted by Dees Koffiebranders in Bruges, chosen to match the Dryk plant milk, and goes into espresso, flat whites, filter coffee and seasonal lattes with pea, oat or coconut milk.

What you need to know about Ghent specialty coffee

Which Ghent coffee shops roast their own coffee? WAY roasts weekly at Dok Noord, Full Circle roasts on a Probat in its Zuid bar, and Vandekerckhove has roasted in Ghent since 1854. OR Coffee Roasters roasts its own coffee for its Coffee Lab.

Which roasters do the other cafés pour? Peaberry pours Caffenation from Antwerp, SMØRBRØD Rush Rush from Antwerp on espresso with rotating filter roasters, Take Five De Witte Zwaan from Eeklo, Goya OR Coffee Roasters, and Catberry a Brazil from Dees Koffiebranders in Bruges. tds. rotates five roasters at a time.

Where is everything plant-based? WAY’s bars and bakery, Full Circle’s two bars and Catberry are fully vegan. Full Circle makes its milk drinks with oat or pea milk, Catberry with pea, oat or coconut.

Can you book a table? Café Labath, Peaberry and Take Five take no reservations, and SMØRBRØD is walk-in. Catberry takes bookings for its high teas, and tds. hosts private table sessions on request.

Where can you learn about coffee? WAY runs workshops at Dok Noord on espresso, latte art, pour-over, AeroPress and tasting, Peaberry has trained baristas since 2018, OR Coffee Roasters runs barista and latte art workshops, and tds. builds its table sessions around tasting, brewing and pairing.

Where can you buy beans? WAY sells its full range at its shop in the centre, Vandekerckhove grinds its own coffees to order at its bar, Full Circle sells its beans at the bar and online, and tds. sells the bags from its current roasters, whole bean only.