De Ultieme Hallucinatie, Brussels, Belgium

Designer: Paul Hamesse, Fred Dericks and Kris Haepers, 1904 and 1981

Never was a name so fitting as De Ultieme Hallucinatie, because behind the understated exterior façade of an elegant townhouse in the Belgian capital, exists a time capsule of Art Nouveau styling so spectacular that one might think it is a hallucination.

To reach the tavern from the street, one walks through a spacious lobby across a mosaic floor, and through a billiard room containing an ornate brass and wooden chess table, at which Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov once sat. On the right is the restaurant decorated in Art Nouveau Empire style and Charles Rennie Mackintosh Arts & Crafts influences with bespoke furniture, mirrors and ornaments designed by Paul Hamesse for the house and never duplicated elsewhere. Sidle past a huge chinoiserie ceramic jardinière embellished with evil looking dragon-like lizards and up a couple of marble steps and welcome to the tavern. Light and airy it was built specifically as an informal bar and brasserie in 1981 on the site of the garden. With its high ceiling, green colour scheme and volcanic rock wall it has a grotto-like ambience, like being outside but in. Customers sit on wooden high backed benches that despite their appearance are surprisingly comfortable. They were designed in 1930 for the Belgian railways and are the furthest travelled seats in any Brussels bar. Unless a customer is exceptionally tall, they will discover that the benches create intimate worlds because once seated, patrons cannot see the people in the adjacent booths.

So order a drink and think of a reason to rent the first floor rooms – it's not often one comes across an Art Nouveau Jewish Freemasons Lodge, but it's there above the tavern and is just one of the extraordinary features of this unique building.

Photographer: Johan Seutens