Waffle palaces

Appears in
Dark Rye and Honey Cake: Festival baking from the heart of the Low Countries
Dark Rye and Honey Cake

By Regula Ysewijn

Published 2023

  • About
Early 19th-century foor wagons were still rather primitive: Antwerps Gebak began its life in 1835 as just a board on wooden trestles. By 1925, the next generation was travelling around with what is beginning to look like a waffle palace. Waffle palaces were opulent wagons with mirrors, frescoes and often even seating areas, which made them into travelling tearooms.

I spoke to a fourth-generation waffle palace or gebakkraam (pastry stand) owner, Paul-Jan, whose wife descends from the family who owned Antwerps Gebak. Paul-Jan’s grandfather started Booms Frituur in 1895 and the two businesses merged when Paul-Jan and his wife took over the reins. Until the mid-1990s this family lived in their wagons, moving from kermis to kermis. Paul-Jan says much has changed since kermis people started living in houses, as the families are no longer living together on the road.