Prague is the Place for Beer
By John Allen
There was a Friday the 13th of May this year, the date my wife Beverley and I were married in 1983. Thirty-three years and two kids later, I decided it was time to take her on a trip somewhere special. It would be our first trip together, without our two sons, in more than 20 years.
I considered a Caribbean beach vacation – nah! We camp at Provincetown on Cape Cod every summer.
I considered cities in the U.S. – Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Diego – nah!
Nothing was feeling right, so I approached the idea from an analysis of things I know my wife loves.
Home Not Special Enough
We are both originally from England and return there as often as possible to see family and friends, going “home” wouldn’t be special enough?
Then it dawned on me… Whenever we are in England Beverley seeks out her favorite drink of choice – ‘Czech Pilsner!’
This delicious beer is almost impossible to find on tap in the U.S., but pubs in England serve a variety of Czech Pilsners on draught, and my wife loves them all. Clearly we needed to go to Prague!
I searched online for airfares, hotels, and general information about Prague, eventually booking our airline tickets and hotel through Orbitz.
Once you find your flight you can peruse numerous hotels. After narrowing down by location, cost, and amenities I “Google-Earthed” each one to see their actual situation.
I picked The Golden Wheel Hotel, Nerudova, Prague 1. A beautiful, boutique, hotel beneath Prague Castle in the medieval district of Mala Strana (Lesser Town), a less tourist-choked area of the ‘Old Town District’.
Mala Strana is across the ornate and famous Charles Bridge from the rest of Old Town and its crowded Square.
Nerudova is a moderately busy (mostly foot traffic) cobblestoned hill dotted with cafes, pubs, pastry shops, art stores, grocery store, and one or two souvenir shops.
It connects two charming squares and is perfectly located between the Charles Bridge and Prague’s magnificent Castle, gardens and breathtaking hilltop views of the city.
Jewels and Art
Prague is an exhilarating trove of architectural jewels and art; buildings, sculptures, decoration, and statuary, from Romanesque, Gothic, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Art Nouveau and modernist periods that can be explored on foot.
Trams and the subway are cheap and easy to use and tickets are transferable between all forms of public transport, including the funicular railroad which takes you to the top of Petrin Hill and The Petrin Tower – a structure inspired by Paris’ Eiffel Tower.
The views make it well worth the 299 step climb to the top (there is also an elevator). All transit tickets are purchased based on a time limit rather than distance.
Zizkov TV Tower
Speaking of towers, besides the plethora of historic spires, belfries and edifices, a quite different structure is the Žižkov Television Tower – a space-age, rocket-like, structure straddling the working-class district of Žižkov.
This monument to Prague’s Soviet past is now adorned with giant bronze, David Černý sculptures of babies crawling up and down one of its huge steel legs.
More of the giant, grid-faced, babies can be viewed up close outside The Kampa Museum of Modern European Art, on Kampa Island, at the Mala Strana side of the Charles Bridge.
The Žižkov neighborhood – sometimes referred to as, “Red Žižkov” – because of its support for left-wing parties, is where we discovered the best way to drink Pilsner.
A working-class neighborhood with gritty charm and sturdy mid-19th century elegance, offset by Soviet Era apartment buildings, is home to great local pubs.
It is also in the early stages of economic revival with “hip” coffee shops, restaurants, artist’s spaces, and farmers’ markets (Think of a budding Brooklyn or London’s Camden Town). Hipsters aside, the pubs there are the real deal!
We drank excellent tank beer (pivo z tanku) and ate delicious snacks of crackling beer spread (pork drippings and beer), toast and roasted almonds at a pub called Plzensky Kopyto on Borivoja Street, recommended by a local we asked for advice.
Although these snacks were excellent, Czech food, in general, was not as wonderful as the rest of our Prague experience, it’s heavy on meat and often void of vegetation.
But if you appreciate Pilsner beer, there’s no place better than the Czech Republic, and no better district of Prague than Žižkov.
Seek out a Tankovna
To appreciate pilsner to the fullest, you must find a pub, café or restaurant advertising pivo z tanku (beer from tanks). The difference between tank beer and beer served from a keg will make you a seeker of the tankovna (tank pub).
Tank beer is unpasteurized. It is delivered fresh from the brewery in special tanker trucks immediately after production and pumped into polypropylene bladders inside the pub’s pressurized tanks.
After escaping the flavor damaging stresses of pasteurization, it is stored in these bladders which are squeezed by the pressurized tanks eliminating the need for CO2.
You get a half-liter mug of beer whose aroma and flavor has been protected from oxygen and light until the moment you hold up your glass to gaze into its golden radiance.
Although it’s not tank beer, another wonderful way to enjoy Czech pilsner is to walk the gardens of Letna Park, which I recommend entering from the castle grounds if you’re game for a long, beautiful, connecting walk with panoramic views of the city and rest stops at friendly, unhurried, beer gardens shaded by giant chestnut trees. Cheers! Or rather – Na zdraví! [Naz-dra-vee].
If you are healthy food, low fat, or vegetarian eater – good luck! You will have to search, but you will find something. If you love chocolate and rich desserts you’ll have no problem – they are everywhere! One restaurant you must avoid is
‘Udvou Restaurance Srdci’ in Mala Strana close to The Kafka Museum. The food is poor and they add insult to injury by including a charge of 30kc (around $1.50) per person – listed as a couvert.
When I enquired about the charge, the unhappy waitress told us it was for salt & pepper, napkins, and knives & forks? She apologized for her boss’s business practices, gave us his email address, and asked us to complain!
The antithesis to this poxy little eatery is a large two-deck riverboat moored just across the nearby Manesuv Bridge at Jan Palach Square.
The Marina Grosseto is an impressive, comfortable and modern, open plan Italian Restaurant with wide-open views across the Vtlava River towards Charles Bridge, the Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. Food and service is excellent and it’s perfect for a romantic dinner with a stunning view of the illuminated Castle and Cathedral.
A ‘Lokal’ Pub
You’ll also be pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive it is. Another, quite different pub/restaurant worth visiting for its good, basic food, tank beer and hectic, fun atmosphere is ‘Lokal’. There are five spread around the city with the original and best, we were told, on Dlouha St. in Lesser Town. They are popular with locals after work and can be very busy.
Pubs to Write Home About
I grew up in a large medieval village in Northern England, loaded with great old pubs and fine beer, and so it takes more than antiquity and beer to impress me.
Prague is so much more than the prodigious sum of its parts, which says a great deal given the astounding array of ingredients. It is a huge and magical city I definitely intend to revisit.
I fell in love with Prague: with the city, with my wife (again), with our hotel and its wonderful, friendly staff, and with the delicious Pilsner beer that had enticed us there.
I fell in love with Prague despite our rocky start at the airport where ATM machines refused our cards.
Get a Chip Card!
A problem which turned out to be the fault of our own bank in the U.S. who sent us on our way with chip-less ATM cards. Be warned – YOUR ATM CARD MUST BE CHIP ENABLED IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO USE IT IN EUROPE! This is a new development I had no such problems last year in either The UK or The Netherlands.
Our quest for cash elicited its own adventures, taking us into areas of the city we might never have visited otherwise. Remember – always try to turn adversity into an adventure – especially when traveling.
John Allen was born and raised in the medieval, Peak District, the village of Tideswell in Northern England. He later attended Liverpool Art School as a “special case” before leaving England to explore North America and live for a while in New York City. He moved to Northampton, Massachusetts where he was instrumental in starting and running a large nightclub for several years before forming his own “Pub Rock” band ‘Big Bad Bollocks’. The band has played throughout the Northeastern U.S and in the U.K. for over 25 years. He lives with his wife Beverley and teaches art at an inner-city high school in Springfield, Massachusetts. Check out his novel about his life, Marmite Cowboy.
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