Café Métropole, Historical café in Pentagon district, Brussels, Belgium

Café Métropole occupies the lower floors of a five-storey eclectic stone building at 33-35 Place de Brouckère, designed by Gédéon Bordiau in 1872. Its white and blue stone facade has five bays, with a colossal order of four fluted columns topped by satyr-mask capitals and two tall caryatids attributed to Égide Mélot. The ground floor carries the gold lettering "FRÈRES SŒURS ZENITH" and "CERCLE ZENITH" beneath a dark green awning.

The building was designed in 1872 by architect Gédéon Bordiau, during the covering of the Senne and the creation of the central boulevards, and won the thirteenth prize in the City of Brussels architecture competition of 1872-1876. In 1891 the Wielemans-Ceuppens brewers bought it to open the Café Métropole, which first opened around 1890. Its upper floors were taken over by the neighbouring Hôtel Métropole and remodelled inside in 1926, the year an attic storey was added. The café closed at the end of April 2013, reopened on 21 February 2014 and shut definitively in 2021.

The name comes from the Café Métropole opened here in 1891 by the brewers Wielemans-Ceuppens, next to the Hôtel Métropole. The café closed at the end of April 2013 and reopened on 21 February 2014; it shut definitively in 2021. Its interior and exterior are listed, so the 2014 refresh left the décor largely unchanged.

The café sits on Place de Brouckère with direct access to the Grand Place and the Royal Saint Hubert galleries nearby. Its central location makes it a natural stopping point while exploring the city's main attractions.

The building won thirteenth prize in the City of Brussels architecture competition of 1872-1876, held to rebuild the new central boulevards after the Senne was covered over. Look for the two tall caryatids on the facade, attributed to Égide Mélot, each standing on an entablature carried by a short Doric column.