1982 - 1997
Armand takes over.
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After many years of success, Gaston and Raymonde handed over the business to their two sons. Armand, who had been behind the stove since he was sixteen, would run the kitchen and the geuze blendery. He became chef in 1974, at the age of 24. That is when he expanded the menu with regional dishes based on lambic, faro and geuze, because his true passion had always been beer rather than cooking. He had inherited his father’s nose, knowledge and experience.
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Armand & Gaston, immortalized on a wooden foudre, a birthday present for Armand in 2019.During the ’80s and ’90s, the restaurant was a true magnet for the region. Everybody who was there still remembers the summer months when more than a thousand kilos of fries got baked in a week and when mussels simmered on the stove, ten kilos at a time. All the while, the geuze was still flowing as well. But the real challenge was now slowly raising its head... by the early 1990s, the consumption of geuze beer was at an all-time low.
Everybody remembers the summers when more than a thousand kilos of fries got baked in a week and when mussels simmered on the stove, ten kilos at a time.
The downward trend was due to a broader move, that had been going on for decades, towards cheap lager beers, sweet varieties of fruit beer and wine. Some even bluntly suggested to stop blending geuze altogether. The authentic way in which Armand performed his craft required not only plenty of time and patience, but money as well. The production and entire stock of geuze always had to be financed four years ahead, including the purchase of barrels. And after that, the bottled geuze still needed its time to mature.
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The Objectieve Bierproevers trophy from 1993.In 1993, the Objectieve Bierproevers (Objective Beer Tasters) awarded their yearly trophy—for any deserving person in the world of Belgian brewing—to the only remaining authentic geuze blenders, being 3 Fonteinen, Hanssens and Moriau. This truly was the boost that Armand needed to know that he was doing the right thing. There still was a future for lambic and geuze. “Lambik, dat is bé van hé”: lambic is beer from here. And it is ours. Lambic beer is intertwined with our terroir, part of a local heritage that is too valuable to let it fade away.