Café Welkom

Photos and words by Cliff Lucas.
Edited by Breandán Kearney.

Café Society is a photographic series which celebrates the spaces at the heart of Belgian beer culture. See more here.

In 2004, when Jo Helsen first walked into Café Welkom as the owner, he decided to replace a Leffe poster with a photo of cyclist Jacques Anquetil climbing the Col du Galibier (a mountain pass that’s often the highest point of the Tour de France). He wanted to add a personal touch to the walls of the café he had come to know so well over the previous 20 years as a patron. “This was my bar,” he says of his time growing up in Noorderwijk, a small village in the Flemish city of Herentals. “This is where I bought my first pack of cigarettes. I drank my first beer here.” Unbeknownst to 30-year-old Helsen at the time, his growing collection of cycling memorabilia would eventually cover the walls, celebrating the local cycling heroes of past and present. Cyclocross legend Sanne Cant, 15-time Belgian champion, 3-time world champion, and 3-time European champion is a regular at Café Welkom (her portrait is painted on the exterior brick façade). Cant celebrated her retirement last year by hosting a party at the café. She’s also a big fan of their homemade lasagna. Wout Van Aert, Herentals native and 3-time cyclocross world champion, is known here too. His friends come to watch his races at the café. Rik Van Looy, the second-winningest cyclist in history behind Eddy Merckx, was a regular here before his passing in December 2024. Van Looy’s portraits can be found on most walls. A pair of weathered bib shorts from his time with Faema cycling hang, framed, above rows of Orval Ambassador plaques. A recommendation from behind the bar is locally brewed Keizer van Hertals, a characterful and spicy blonde ale brewed in honour of Van Looy—who is affectionately known as the Emperor of Herentals. The café that Doors and Trees van Lommel started in 1932 was a traditional Flemish volkscafé with modest decor. They ran a milk delivery service, a grocery store, and even opened the first petrol station in Noorderwijk out of the same building. And now, 93 years later, with the grocery store and petrol station long gone, a museum of cycling history complements the café. When asked if he’ll add anything new to the walls, Helsen pauses. “If something catches my eye,” he says. This is his bar, after all.