Kaffee de Planck

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.

When Odette Deschuyttere found a decommissioned container ship, The Durandal, for sale near her home in West Flanders over 40 years ago, her childhood dream of owning a boat came true. As a music lover, Deschuyttere first ran a music club on the restored Durandal—acting as the DJ herself and often dancing the night away—until a change of heart led her to opening a café and taking on a new set of daily tasks. Kaffee de Planck was meant to stay in West Flanders. That was home after all. But in 1997, attracted by the allure of Gentse Feesten (an annual 10-day music and theatre festival), Deschuyttere set sail for Ghent to experience the festival firsthand. After multiple breakdowns and two dropped anchors along the way, she arrived in Ghent on the last day of the festival and docked the Durandal in front of a commercial movie theatre. It still calls that spot home 28 years later (Google lists its official address as “Boat Across the Kinepolis Cinema”). The house beer, Planckske, is a Strong Golden Ale brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge. “It’s close to an Amber,” explains Arne from behind the bar. Paddlers on kayaks and canoes, without stepping ashore, can ring the exterior bell to place their order. Poes, the cat that Odette adopted off of the street ten years ago, now rests eternally beneath a neon Palm sign. And Kinepolis, which is home to the Film Fest Gent each year across the street, has been known to send a few celebrities aboard for a beer. Margaret Salmon’s emotional and imaginative short film—“Home” (2019)—was featured at the 2021 edition. Shot on 16mm film, it depicts a woman performing her daily routine of household tasks before dancing the night away with a ghost.