IN THE QUEUE AT TO MELI, BRUSSELS — It’s the after-lunch coffee rush in the heart of the EU quarter in Brussels and this buzzing café is packed with Eurocrats and lobbyists donning suits in a distinctly limited array of shades of navy blue. I inch closer to the front of the queue. Amid the murmurs of power plays and EU jargon, a familiar intonation rises as I hear the customer in front of me order coffee.
The chitchat has the polite familiarity of old friends bumping into each other while running errands on a Saturday afternoon. Heads preen toward the counter, as several French-speaking suits in the queue appear equal parts impatient and fascinated — perhaps even a bit jealous to not be part of the in-crowd. I smile to myself, knowing the customer is at home — and so am I.
Born and raised in Athens, I feel most comfortable at an establishment where the coffee is iced, the staff is warm and the pastries are savoury. To Meli opened in 2019 in the heart of the mundane grid of concrete and power that connects the headquarters of the European Commission, Council and Parliament. Its name means “honey.” Greek coffee houses have quietly conquered the Brussels bubble, offering a daily respite from the hustle and bustle of the corridors of power, beating local Belgian cafés, generic American chains and even the Italian barista masters on their turf.
Many of the cafés driving the Greek coffee coup — beyond To Meli, there’s Papillon, Caffeine and Cherry, to name the most popular ones — were born out of the debt crisis of the 2010s, when the country faced an economic collapse that saw unemployment top 27 percent. The owners of To Meli originally moved to Belgium in 2013 in search of better opportunities before opening their first location six years later. Many of the staff members similarly arrived in Brussels during the crisis to find jobs.
In typical Mediterranean fashion, many were spurred by family or friends who were already working in the cafés. To Meli’s business has been massively successful, with revenues up almost 300 percent from 2013 to 2024, according to their financial accounts. Their neighbour, the Greek-owned Papillon, has seen its revenue climb by four times, Vassilis Tsourapis, the manager of the café, told POLITICO.
Tsourapis, like many of the staff members, ended up working at Papillon through a family relation. Another waiter at To Meli is the owner’s cousin. Greek coffee culture is fundamentally not about speed, efficiency or even caffeine.
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