Is Chez Clément a good choice for a special group event?

Group events are part of the historic DNA of Chez Clément. Marie and Gilles Verleyen, the fifth generation of the family who lead the brasserie today, were themselves married in the conservatory of the brasserie they now run, an unusually direct illustration of how the venue handles a wedding from the inside. Successive generations of the Clément family have hosted local weddings, communions, christenings, christmas dinners, anniversary celebrations, corporate year-end evenings and association gatherings for almost two centuries.

The physical scale is what makes this work. The seated dining capacity reaches 230, spread across the main brasserie room, the bar area and the conservatory. For private events where guests circulate freely, weddings, corporate cocktails, communions, anniversaries, the maximum configuration scales up to around 250 guests. That makes Chez Clément one of the larger event-capable independent venues between Brussels and Wavre. Partial privatisation is possible (specific room-by-room capacities are coordinated case by case at booking, including the conservatory and a wider rental of the main room and bar zone).

The kitchen is the second part of the answer. Chef Vincent Frédéric De Laloy has run the brigade since 1996. The team is thirty-two strong, the cooking philosophy is “tout fait maison”, and the carte for group events is built from the same traditional Belgian repertoire that powers the regular service, vol-au-vent, croquettes, sole meunière, steak tartare, gibier in season, which guests recognise and trust. The brasserie also has its own internal signature occasions: the annual Pétanque tournament in September (around fifty teams), the Raclette evenings in October and November with invited Swiss cheesemongers, the Thursday-night “Thursday disco nights” tradition launched by France Clément in the 1990s.

Practical logistics are easy. Twenty-five minutes from central Brussels via the Ring R0, fifteen minutes from Waterloo, twelve minutes from Wavre. A giant free car park sits ten metres from the front door, which removes the parking headache that often complicates private events. Brussels-Zaventem airport is thirty minutes away for guests flying in. The brasserie is fully step-free at every level, including toilets. The setting, ten metres from the boundary between Genval and La Hulpe, with the regional Solvay Estate, the Fondation Folon and the Lac de Genval all within a five-to-seven-minute radius, makes a natural after-event walk for guests who arrived early.