Nico Mattan goes ‘over de Schreve’ with book

During those trips he sometimes entered one of the many popular cafes in the Westhoek. Now he has bundled them in a booklet, ‘Mattan over de Schreve’. One of those cafes is the popular café Het Hazekasteel in Nieuwkerke, near Maaitje. Nico Mattan: “A café is made by the café owner. If you have a café owner who is constantly busy with his mobile phone behind his counter, you will not come back.”

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Mattan knows the area like the back of his hand. He used to always come here to train, and now he comes to a brewery for his job. His many photos on Instagram gave the impetus to a book with the most beautiful pubs in the Westhoek. About de Schreve, both in France and in Flanders. “You don’t have that in Antwerp or Limburg. Here you still have those old, brown pubs that have been around for fifty years. Like Maaitje in the Hazekasteel, or Lena van de Helleketen. Those brown pubs have always been my passion . My dad was also a beer trader, so I was spoon-fed. I was born between the beer barrels.”

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‘Mattan over de Schreve’ has a handy map. With this you can make a bike ride of 70 kilometers along the most beautiful pubs in the Westhoek. Maybe it’s best not to stop everywhere.