Lafayette Music Bar

Lafayette Music Bar on the Langestraat has been part of Ostend’s nightlife for more than 28 years. It began as a brasserie with a nod to New Orleans and grew into a music café devoted to rhythm and blues, soul, funk, popcorn and other classics. Its manager, DJ Bobo Kool, has been the face of the place since 1997.

The room is a dark-wood café with banquettes, candlelit tables, a chequerboard floor and large black-and-white portraits of soul greats on the walls, and outside there is a covered terrace lounge on the street. Music comes first, from the resident DJs and selected live acts, but the bar stresses its drinks list too, with cocktails and Belgian beers and some bites to go with them. The website lists no menu or prices.

It opens seven days a week from 14:00 until the early hours, which makes it one of the dependable late options on the street. Come for the soul soundtrack and the atmosphere with a cocktail in hand, rather than for an elaborate cocktail list.