BRUSSELS ¨C Not waiting at home for Santa Claus, gourmets in Brussels are flying off aboard his sleigh to dine with him above the city¡¯s rooftops and twinkling Christmas lights.
Santa in the Sky is a novel twist on the Belgian capital¡¯s Dinner in the Sky venture, where diners and the chefs cooking for them are lifted high in the air on an open platform suspended from a construction crane.
This weekend on the city¡¯s chic Sablon square shopping district, a bell-ringing Santa Claus is welcoming people aboard the ¡°restaurant¡± fitted out as a sleigh decked with lights and drawn through the air by four theater-prop reindeer.
Diners, who sit strapped to chairs to eat at a bar running round the open kitchen, can pay up to €250 ($265) for a gastronomic four-course supper with wine, or go for options starting at €55 for tea ¡ª of course, it¡¯s ¡°high tea.¡±
Free to marvel at Brussels¡¯ Flemish Renaissance grandeur and medieval churches, customers can savor haute cuisine from distinguished chefs, some with Michelin stars to their name.
On Friday evening, Maxime Mazier¡¯s menu included a lobster and artichoke starter, line-caught sea bass with shellfish and coconut marshmallow with mango. The trick, he said, was coping with the gusts of winter night air that whip around the sleigh.
¡°It¡¯s not that warm,¡± he said. ¡°Just as you¡¯re serving, if the wind gets up, for the fish, which has to be served just right, it¡¯s the timing that¡¯s important.¡±
Michael Chiche, who helps run the Brussels-based firm that over the past 10 years has brought the sky-dining experience to 58 countries, said he was confident the four-day Christmas event that was to wrap up Sunday, would be repeated next year.
¡°To be in the air, first, it¡¯s the view,¡± he said. ¡°Secondly, you¡¯re blocked. It means that you are with your guests, you are with the chef and all the flavors, everything, you¡¯re going to experience it completely differently.¡±
Helene Ziegler, 19, an art history student, said it had been worth a moment of panic: ¡°As we were on the way up, I got a bit scared. It was moving. But once on top, it became very quiet.
¡°It¡¯s great to see the entire city. The food is very good. The chefs prepare it in front of us. It¡¯s wonderful.¡±
The evening, she said, was a gift to her and her sister from their father ¡ª though he found a convenient excuse not to join them 35 metres (100 feet) above the cold cobbles of the Sablon.
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