this has not exactly been the space for good news lately.

Gringo's Cantina, a restaurant at Ernest van Dijckkaai in Antwerp is closing it's doors. It is the first place we have a connection to that is closing it's doors due to the Covid 19 crisis. It's very small, one could not reserve a table there, one could only pay with cash, and there was no way they had an extra space to hide tables, or build plastic fences between tables etc. In other words, they're fucked but they leave us in style, with a stiff leg in hot sauce! It's a bummer for Antwerp.

For years and years Gringo's was in a way "the underground's restaurant" of Antwerp, much like Table Dance these days. Folks you knew from a darker nightlife worked there in bright lights, beauties like Floriske, Siggy, Pascale, Pol, Pieter "Captain Brunch" etc, the wall space in the restrooms was reserved for Scheldapen, Gunther, Stadslimiet and De Nor, always, and solely, which is something we'll be thankful for forever! One of it's owners, Maryse Ghoos was the dj and owner of Antwerp's most legendary scum-club "Cinderella's Ballroom", a place i sadly never visited as i was way too young. Maryse also had a radioshow on Radio Centraal in it's early days. The bordjes at Gringo's were always ieel warm, and the coctails were fantastic. In the first half of the 2000's Iwan Verhulst and Raphael Vandeputte did this friday nigth radioshow called "Pelignilot & Ampersand" on Radio Centraal. We often visited the show to start the weekend. It became a tradition to pick up coctails and drink em at the radio to start the night and between around 1998 and 2010 my body almost entirely excisted out of enchilada's with fish thanks to them. All respect and thanks to Hamid and Maryse and everyone that worked there for the wonderful food and drinks and the great times! RIP Gringo's!