Saturday, August 9, 2014

Pop-up restaurant Hoboken (Antwerp)



March 10 2014 saw the opening of the pop-up restaurant Zomercafé Senses in the orangery of Sorghvliedt Manor in Hoboken. The summer cafe will be open every day except Tuesdays until the end of September. The venue is exploited by Sense, an Antwerp bases firm with a social and inclusive community mission. Through a variety of projects Sense provides people with difficulties in the jobs market to acquire skills and working experience in a variety of venues including neighbourhood restaurants, hotels, events and corporate canteens.  The neigbourhood restaurants have a double function as they offer cheap meals (€3,00 for soup and a main course) for people of little means.

The pop-up summer cafe is located in the former orangery of Sorghvliedt one of the historic pleasances that once circled the city of Antwerp. Most of these have now vanished. Some however still remain as public park or are part preserved with the manor house surviving and most of the former park developed. Sorghvliedt Manor still stands in its own park with the gate houses and orangery still intact. The name of this pleasance Sorghvliedt translates as (the place) where worries are fleeting, and pleasant is certainly is!



The orangery stands to the north of the forecourt of the manor house (left). The manor house (middle) was built in a restrained rococo style between 1745 and 1750 at the site of a small summer house. The building known to locals as a castle now houses the district council of Hoboken. The pop-up restaurant consists of an insert containing a kitchen block, two toilets and a bar that is placed within the space of the old orangery building (right).

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