"Den Engel" is Flemish for "The Angel", hut offers no difficulty in pronunciation - say it just as it appears, with a hard ^"g" writes Ken Lee

Why have a Flemish name on a Staffordshire pub? It is unique in the county (and perhaps in the country) in being a Belgian cafe bar rather than an English pub. Geoff and Hilary Turner, longstanding active CAMRA members, have enjoyed visiting Belgium for the great variety of beer and high quality of food (easily up to French standards), and in December 1996 decided to apply their enthusiasm to restaurant in the Belgian style, but much closer to home, in Leek.

The building they chose, in St. Edward St., was originally the Wheatsheaf, a mid-19th century pub, which was licensed until the mid-50's. It was a temporary Post Office for a while, then a licensed betting office, hut was empty from 1994.

Geoff and Hilary were sitting in a traffic jam one day, when they noticed the high windows, and thought it looked Belgian. When they visited it and saw the marble terrazzo floor, they were convinced they could do something with it, and decided to experiment with a Belgian bar. Many people locally thought they were crazy, but their ideas have proved to be highly popular

Geoff has six continental cobra fonts offering Leffe Blonde, Hoegaarden Wheat, De Koninok from Antwerp and Straffe Hendrik from Bruges, plus two real lagers:

Dortmunder Union and Czech Budvar. (A genuine Belgian pils is imminent.) There are also four traditional British handpumps, with three beers from small independent brewers (changing regularly) and one traditional farmhouse cider (Geoff supports CAMRA principles. If only more licensees and their customers - were allowed the same opportunity.)

Many of our readers will know that one of the glories of the Belgian brewing tradition is the vast range of bottled beers. Well, you don't have to travel far these days, because Den Engel stocks more than 75 of these quality beers, including all the Trappists, a wide range of Abbey beers, golden ales, including the best-selling, world-famous Duvel; a good range of wheat and fruit beers, the classic Rodenbach red beers, the distinctive, sharp gueuze and fruit lambics. Each of these beers is served in its own specially-designed glass. In fact, the Kwak glass is so special that you have to deposit one of your shoes, before you are allowed to have it!

To complete the Belgian tradition there is an extensive list of genevers (gins), mostly Belgian, some Dutch. Many are fruit-flavoured, and are less than 30% alcohol.

And the piece de resistance is that there is waiter table service, in line with Belgian style. When was the last time you had waiter service in the lounge of your local?

A restaurant was added upstairs in 1997, specialising in a European menu, with a strong Flemish bias. Beer is used in many of the dishes, for example guineafowl in kriek (cherry) beer, rabbit in gueuze, duck in blackcurrant beer sauce₁ stoverij (Flemish beef stew), waterzooi (Flemish chicken casserole); and there are mussels in abundance, in many sauces. You will find that 1kg is a lot of mussels. (Half-kilo portions are available in the bar for the faint-hearted.)

The spacious bar is high-ceilinged, with tall windows and a cool green décor. It is very light, especially on a sunny lunchtime. The first-floor restaurant is most attractive in yellows and greens. Den Engel has light background (classical style) music, and there are no TV no games, no jukebox, no bandit. And on Friday and Saturday evenings it is packed.

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