Diaspora Season - Chapter 3: Ciao, Belga! 🇮🇹

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The latest installment of the new podcast/article series on diaspora bars in Brussels is out now, focusing this time on Brussels’ Italian community.

Here's a short extract!

“Since 2019 La Tana has moved to a new location and added some - natural - Italian wines to the menu, but the Roman identity and beer-stocked fridges remain, and diners kept coming. Why wouldn’t they? Italians have been feeding and slaking the thirst of Brussels’ residents almost since the first ones arrived in the 19th century. In the intervening years, through political upheaval, racism, discrimination, and tragedy, two things have remained constant: new Italian arrivals to Brussels have successfully mined the culinary and gustatory reputation of their homeland to make a life for themselves beyond the Alps; and the appetite of Brussels’ residents for the 'italianità they have discovered in these épiceries, delis, cafés and restaurants remained unsatiated. 

The standard template for the Italian restaurant in Brussels has morphed over time as new generations of Italians arrive to adapt the formula to their own ends. Sometimes they have flattened their identities to appeal to a broader audience, at other times they have played to their regional strengths and focused on their own community, and some - like Banon at La Tana - have taken it in new or unexpected creative directions. Back in 2019, Banon told me that La Tana means lair or den in Italian, and he chose it because he wanted - like so many of his predecessors - to import to Brussels some of the cosy, warm familiarity of his Mediterranean home.”

📰Read the full article here: https://www.beercity.brussels/home/2023/brussels-beer-city-diaspora-italians-brussels-italy

🎧Listen to the podcast here: https://pca.st/episode/ddeb4a13-69dc-4c88-8811-5392b05f3e13