2021 June – Cigar Dinner Aroma De Cuba Cigar Club In Gent Belgium

I had heard a lot about the Aroma de Cuba cigar club, after all most of my good Belgian friends are members there and we had met in Havana, Kortrijk and other places individually but I had never attended a cigar meeting with them.

So when my buddy Frank told me about the first ADC cigar meeting this year I asked him to take me along – I had a few things to celebrate and I knew it was going to be a unique event.

It was my first trip outside Germany in 18 months, first timemeeting Frank again in 10 months, 2 weeks after my second Pfizer-BNT jab and a day after receiving some very good news from the Sulzbach eye clinic about my left eye … lots to celebrate.

The weather was glorious,  bit on the hotter side at 30C, the driving fluid until I hit the NL border and saw the speed limit was 100 km/h. Belgium was even worse, they must have sadists implementing traffic law there…

But it was Frank driving in Belgium, so I could relax and take a nap.

We arrived early ( no wonder having estimated 3 hrs for a 125 km drive but having to pass Antwerp you never know … ( and I had a chance to take in the place, nothing spectacular from the outside but a beautiful open air part and large garden out back.

Brasserie Latem is a Michelin starred Restaurant with a passion for wine and a great cellar.

Owner/Chef Peter is himself a passionate cigar smoker and offers a very decent cigar list as well. He stopped by frequently serving food and inquiring how it was all enjoyed – great host and perfect service by him and his crew. Some comments below :

MICHELIN Guide’s Point Of View

The chef is a stickler for fine ingredients, which he skilfully combines into dishes that are full of character and taste. What’s more, the servings are generous, which is also true of the Japanese dishes served in the Izakaya. The wines and cigars are fully in keeping with these high standards.

From Trip Advisor :

ChurchOfNoise –Ghent, Belgium – Reviewed January 28, 2018

Top of the bill in the Ghent area – a reference in its class

Brasserie Latem is a well known and respected name in and around Ghent, for a good reason.
Having been a guest at several occasions, the quality of food and wine was excellent on each occasion, with classic dishes and variations there upon.
The wine list is absolutely enormous, but the sommelier is a wizard at finding the right one given some input from your side (have had the pleasure of savouring some extremely nice wines at very correct prices)
I’ll return over and over again gladly, knowing that I can count on high quality. This quality comes at its price.

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About 30 Aficionados were present that evening and I was made welcome by the fine hospitality of the President of ADC David, by great people and friends like Koen, Joerg, Peter D., Jennifer, Kevin, Anthony and Paul among many others.

The atmosphere was very relaxed and colloquial with excellent conversation and exchanges, fantastic Tapas from the kitchen, great wines and we were offered 3 high end cigars : H. Upmann Ser. Du Conn. A, Nick Perdomo 20^th Anniv., and A. Fuente Opus X.

Frank introduced the Habanos and Koen did the same for the Fuente while Kevin gave a chat about the Perdomo.

A big surprise was that Koen named me “Honorary Member Extra Muros” of ADC and presented me with the pin and a lovely Xikar cigar cutter of ADC.

This was certainly NOT my last dinner with Aroma de Cuba !

It was five and a half hours of pure fun and relax and to me it was like being thawed again from the deep freeze of 18 months of isolation and pandemic. I felt like back in Havana at Espacios !

The time passed too quickly and we soon were back on the road to end the night drinking aged Grappa at Frank’s place and being happy about having been out again.

Dank uw wel and tot ziens to all from the heart !

Nino