3 Fonteinen Restaurant-Café
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Website (English): http://www.3fonteinenrestaurant.com/
Address: Herman Teirlinckplein 3, B-1650 Beersel
Phone: +32 2 331 06 52
Overview
The Drie Fonteinen Restaurant-Café, founded in 1953, is a full service restaurant serving regional food that is often prepared with lambic. Behind the restaurant is an outdoor enclosed courtyard with additional seating. The restaurant is owned and managed by Guido Debelder with the help of his son Thomas. As of 2026, Guido is planning on retiring, though he will most likely still help at the restaurant.
History
The history of the Debelder family with 3 Fonteinen Café (most likely named that way, "3 fountains", because of the three hand pumps used to serve lambic behind the bar, though it is also possible that the 3 wells nearby might have been the reason as well) started in 1953, when Gaston Debelder and his wife Raymonde Dedoncker purchased the business, an inn already serving lambic blended in the cellar, which was common at the time.
For many years, the place was serving simple food like toast with local Pottekeis for people on the go, and lambic was a secondary activity to support the inn business. Originally, lambic was purchased from the Van Haelen brewery nearby in Calevoet (part of Beersel) until the 1960s, when they moved the business to the church square after buying an old building they tore down to make way for a new one, carrying the name 3 Fonteinen along. They then purchased from De Neve and Brouwerij Winderickx (which closed in 69 after being acquired by De Boek-Goosens - Brasseries Unies - a year prior).
Lambic was transported to the inn by horse or truck and brought to the cellar using gravity, where it would be added to the barrels for ageing at the blender's discretion. At the time, the team had to carry everything down the tiny stairs by themselves, which included empty barrels (usually 40 to 50kg each) as well as empty bottles to be filled later, which Gaston Debelder and the rest of the team had to place on their shoulder by bags of 60 Champagne bottles of 75cl each (at about 900 gramms each it is over 50kg total), displaying serious labour[1].
The inn used a variety of cellars (caveaux) for storage, that went up to 21 at some point. Each cellar could store about 3500 bottles of 75cl or 5000 bottles of 37,5cl, though some of these rooms were only filled with a handful of bottles, some others were fully packed. On a good sunday, they would sell about 20 boxes of 12x 75cl lambic bottles, which was quiet a turnaround and valuable business. It became a quiet popular spot, hosting regulars such as writer Herman Teirlinck and his friends.
While most of the sales were comprised of gueuze and kriek (at a ratio of approximately 60% of gueuze for 40% of kriek), they would also serve occasionally straight lambic from the barrel in jugs, as well as framboise (raspberry) and Faro from the hand pumps. Blending wasn't done as a precise science and the goal was to provide a soft, easy drinking lambic to visitors. Even though, some of these bottles still hold up perfectly to this day.
At the age of 16 in 1967, Armand Debelder, son of Gaston (and brother of Guido, who would later manage the place) started working in the kitchen, and during the 70's he slowly turned the place into a real restaurant with more elaborated local food, and he became a chef in 1974.
In 1982, Armand and Guido officially took over. Guido would manage the restaurant itself (which is still the case to this day, though he will soon retire), while Armand would handle the kitchen, and the beer blending business which was his true passion. As his father, he was known for having a great nose, and through interactions with Willem Van Herreweghen (founder of De Cam) and Frank Boon, he perfected his craft creating more elaborated blends. It is important to note that while the restaurant was a hot spot at the time, lambic consumption as a whole was at its lowest, so it took real determination to dive into this venture.
Around 1995 a first warehouse was rented to store more beer, and a second around 97 as they started planning on brewing their own beer as well.
In 1998, they purchased two foeders (4000 & 6000L) placed in the second warehouse and started using sour cherries from Poland for the first time as production had increased and local cherries weren't enough. A first refrigerated space was purchased to store fruits properly.
On December 1st of the same year, Restaurant Debelder BV (the company represented by Guido, Armand and Gaston Debelder) signed the paperwork necessary to the rental of the brewing equipment through BCB, company represented by Willem Van Herreweghen so Armand could start brewing.
It is around that time that they started bottling at Brouwerij Boon, using Champagne corks (before that while bottling by hand in the cellar, wine corks were used).
On February 1st, 2001, Armand left the restaurant and in late March 2001 he created "A.D. Bieren", which then went on to continue as "3 Fonteinen". From that point on, the restaurant was owned and managed solely by Guido, though the entire family kept working together until 2015 as they all almost lived under the same roof up to that point.
Up to 2018, the location was offering all-day service from 10am to 2am each day.
Nowadays, Guido and his son Thomas Debelder still run the restaurant (friday to monday from noon to 2pm, and 6pm to 9:30pm), which still serves traditional food, as well as vegeterian options. It also hosts in its cellar Geuzestekerij Parrain since 2023, the latest lambic blending project of the Debelder family, a collaboration between Thomas and his sister Julie (also a renowned nose in the family), who both aim to create an easy-drinking, thirst-quenching gueuze as a tribute to their origins.
3 Fonteinen Restaurant-Café Beers
Up to 2015, 3 Fonteinen Restaurant-Café consistently served a breadth of current and vintage 3 Fonteinen lambics. Most notably, however, was the kriekenlambik. Slightly sweetened, the 3 Fonteinen kriekenlambik was generally only available fresh at the restaurant though it made occasional appearances at festivals.
From 2015, following a rise in costs of the beers sold by 3 Fonteinen brewery, they switched to Girardin Kriek, and then Boon. Nowadays, they serve Lambiek Fabriek as well as other producers like Boon and Tilquin, and of course, Parrain which is part of the facility.
Photos
Videos
References
- ↑ Guido Debelder, interview with Gael of lambic.info, November 2025