Racines

The Roots of Italian Honesty

Ugo Federico arrived in Brussels from Capri via a decade working under Fabio Picchi at Cibrèo in Florence — one of the great Italian culinary schools, where the distinction between trattoria and high gastronomy is considered irrelevant and the daily market is the only menu worth writing. Francesco Cury, Florentine sommelier, arrived via the same school. In 2015, the two opened Racines on Chaussée d'Ixelles and proceeded to build exactly the restaurant they wanted: daily-changing menu, 50-page living wine list, open kitchen with a counter facing the stoves.

The format is deceptively simple. Everything at Racines is made in-house — pasta is cut each morning, bread is baked before service, the charcuterie is prepared by Federico himself. The menu changes with near-daily frequency based on what the market offers, which means that a regular can return every week without repetition. The kitchen draws from the full length of Italy — north to south, Piedmont to Campania — without the regional chauvinism that Italian restaurants outside Italy often import with their pasta.

The wine list deserves its own description: 50 pages of living Italian and French producers, arranged by region and producer with the depth of an enoteca rather than a restaurant cellar. Cury's selections are biodynamic, natural, and chosen for what they do to food rather than for label recognition. This is as much an enoteca as it is a trattoria — both descriptions are accurate, neither is complete.

Best Occasion: Solo Dining

The counter at Racines is one of the definitive solo dining experiences in Brussels. Facing Federico's open kitchen from the counter provides the same quality of direct access that makes Kamo compelling: the solo diner is positioned as a witness to the chef's working method, which in Federico's case means watching a kitchen that operates with the confident informality of a serious Italian home. The counter positions you inside the process rather than at its consumption end.

For a first date, the daily-changing menu is an advantage — there is no menu to study and overthink; you ask what is good today and the kitchen answers. The white-bricked dining room overlooking the garden provides the alternative for those who prefer a table. For a team dinner, the sharing nature of Italian food and the warmth that Federico and Cury bring to hospitality make Racines one of the few serious restaurants in the city that does not feel formal — the table relaxes without the food lowering its standards.

What to Order

Ask the kitchen what is best today. This is not a generic instruction — at Racines it is the only way to eat well, because Federico's market sourcing means that what was exceptional on Tuesday may not be on the menu by Thursday. The pasta is the anchor: handmade, daily-cut, in preparations that change from egg-based to semolina-based as the season and the chef's intention demand. A plate of cacio e pepe here is not a menu staple — it is a decision Federico makes when the pecorino justifies it.

The antipasti are the counter seats' private pleasure — smaller preparations that appear and disappear with the kitchen's rhythm, often not appearing on the paper menu at all. Cury's wine recommendations are always precise; tell him the dish, he finds the bottle. Budget €60–90 per person including wine, which at Racines is one of the most compelling spending decisions in the Belgian capital. Compare with Senzanome for Italian fine dining at a higher register, or Barge for Belgian contemporary at a similar price point.