543. Friday 09/11/18: Palác Akropolis, Prague, Czech Republic

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

We’ve been once, some years ago, to Žižkov's premier (proper) venue, the Akropolis, to see a band. We must’ve largely stumbled into the gig, it wasn’t planned. Great venue, mind – an old theatre venue, nice and small with a good sound. Been there once.

Thought we’d pop in for a beer on our last day though. The bar at the Akropolis on a Friday afternoon is underwhelming but, without the pretensions hoisted onto too many other places in Prague these days, that seems like a breath of fresh air.

The Pilsner Urquell isn’t at its best. It’s a bit warm. Stephanie struggles with A) trying to send a text to my brother, which seemingly refuses to go through and B) a beer fly, against which she waves hands and urgently suggests that he/she ought to “f*ck off”.

 

527a. Tues 6/11/18: U Hrocha, Prague

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

A tiny bar - well two tiny bars, separated by a passageway - up among the embassies behind Malostranská Namesti. We tried coming here last year, but couldn’t get in. This year, we’ve come early, straight from the Museum of Oppression, housed within the base of the old statue of Stalin.

We’re in luck, kind of. TPK advises that he and SA usually sit in the window. There’s space there, he points out, for two. Not three. I invite him to remain stood up. It doesn’t go down well, so I invite the two of them to sit and I perch nearby, getting in people’s way. That’s how I remember it. There's definitely some moving around and fitting in where we can. A group of teeny kids don’t have the same problem, although they’re at odds with the older demographic and don’t hang around long.

223. Tue 14/11/17: V Ruthardce. Dačického nám, Kutná Hora. Czech Republic

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

We have a cursory wander, but can’t really find anywhere we fancy eating... so we wander back to V Ruthardce. The lovely little bar with the fire is packed, so we go round the corner to a very (too) well lit room full of little round tables – and there we consult the menus.

Veggie Steph has to go for salted sheep’s cheese on tiny little potato dumplings – stodge on stodge. I have pork shoulder. Very nice too. I was far more impressed with my meal than Stephanie was with hers.

240. Sat 18/11/17: U Bansethů, Prague, Czech Republic

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

Our Saturday crawl starts with (eventually) meeting my brother at Wenceslas Square and getting on tram no.11 to Nusle. From our stop it’s up the road to U Bansethů. It’s quite packed – all the tables have “reserved” notices on them, but we sit at one which is free for more than enough time.

This is a fine old traditional wood panelled boozer – one of the favourites of Jaroslav Hasek, author of The Good Soldier Svejk. He has a dedicated table, signposted with a big tin sign, portraits and pictures of him hanging on the wall (Hasek – not Svejk – Svejk, in cartoon form, is all over the place in Czech).

We have a couple of drinks – which is possibly doing this place an injustice, but is probably more than enough given we’ve a few more pubs left to visit. The next is next door.

   

232. Thu 16/11/17: Konvikt, Prague

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

Our favourite non-Old Gott beerhall in central Prague – selling tankovna PU.

Since our visit this time last year, the Czech Republic has banned smoking in pubs and restaurants – and that’s made a big difference to places like this, which used to be very smoky. Steph is very pleased about this. I’m generally happy but remain faintly nostalgic about smoke filled pubs…

There’s ice hockey on the telly. It’s Sev 2 Avt 4. I have no idea who either team are… but Sev have just scored another.

We’ve been to this pub several times in recent years – it makes a nice change from U Medvícků – the beer is always good, and it’s very rarely packed.

On this particular evening, it’s only 7pm, but we’re already quite drunk.

220. Tues 14/11/17: Pizzerie Rustica, Prague

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

Not for the first time without a guide book in the centre of Prague, the place seems bereft of the kind of dingy little bars that surround railway stations in Spain, and for that matter England.

We have one and a half hours before our train to Kutna Hora, and eventually find this basement pizzeria. It was probably a decent basic boozer in its (grim Communist) heyday – gentrified into this culturally irksome, but lovely smelling pizza joint.

The beer tastes good too. Not, Steph suggests, from the tank. Could, I suggest, she tell the difference? Possibly... not.

251. Mon 20/11/17: Mlsnej Kocour, Prague

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%
Another dull PU “green” pub, this one on Namesti Miru. We’d been looking for cheap eats – and this might have done, but every table was reserved. We eventually find somewhere, up on overly high benches, which is available for the next half hour or so…

What’s this place called? I’ve taken to taking exterior pictures; not just because pictures of pints is getting a bit boring, but as an additional visual note of what a place is called. Inside, usually, the menu is a reliable source of information. It appears this establishment is called “Homemade Lemonade”.

The beer is good. The beer is always good… is it a credible line in homesickness to subconsciously hanker for the odd dodgy pint?

My notes suggest we talk about religion. Not entirely sure… it was probably my browbeating Steph into not damning religion per se – rather that the it’s always the idiot minority blah blah blah… that’s my belief system – it sounds similar to the argument of the American gun lobby.

We don’t eat – so head back for the Wenceslas Square stodge stalls.

230 Thu 16/11/17: U Pinkasů, Prague

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

For me, apart from checking how the Bohemians (football team) got on at the weekend, being an ardent Czechophile involves downloading the week daily English language podcast from Prague Radio. I get to hear quite a bit about Andrej Babiš and his ANO party, the exhibitions I’ll be missing in Prague – and occasional series about life in the Czech Republic. One short series was about pubs, and U Pinkasů was featured: the first Prague pub to sell Pilsner Urquell in the capital.

It sounded like a tourist trap (like U Fleků and U Medvícků, also featured in the series) but I was surprised, given that it hadn’t made it into the pages of our guidebooks.

The pub is deep in tourist territory, but tucked away near the Můstek end of Wenceslas Square. It is a large sprawling pub – but the individual rooms therein are quite small and intimate. It’s quite nice. It also seems largely populated by locals – ours being the only voices in the English language lousing up the ambience.

Service (upstairs at least) was traditionally rubbish – but we eventually found a way to get served. The first bar we visit is wood lined and warm to the point of soporific; we finish one and then take a wander to the cellar bar, which is much cooler.

There’s a small cabinet selling UP merch’, but this doesn’t seem a “ram it down your throat” tourist operation like some other places. I quite like it... and we return a few times more.

246 Sun 19/11/17: Konvict, Prague

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

A hop over the way from U Medvícků to Konvikt – where you’ll always get a seat. Is this beer unfiltered Urquell too? Surely Urquell fails to be urquell (original) if they keep expanding the range. My notes labour this point, again… again, the beer is very nice.

Easyjet flights up to next Autumn are out – so talk is of where we’ll go in 2018 (and what variations of Spain and Czech we can think up).

221 Tue 14/11/17: V Ruthardce, Kutná Hora

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

Kutná Hora is a pleasant little town with a handful of UNESCO sites, and thereby attracts tourist aplenty (albeit mostly, one suspects, Prague based daytrippers). We have two nights here. Out of season tourist towns are great, as they have plenty of pubs/eateries, and they have plenty of space.

V Ruthardce is one such olde worlde joint – squarely aimed at tourists, without going the whole “staff in costume” hog. We try and enter through the kitchen, but are put right – and pointed towards a cosy little bar area, with a lovely big fireplace. Unlike our pub in Merstham the previous evening, the fire therein is lit two minutes after we enter – and is quickly raging.

The pub (as we find out in subsequent visits) is large, with several rooms – and this is by far the best. We’d have stayed at least one drink longer had the only other table in the room been occupied by low talking locals, and not loud English speaking (we can’t specifically pinpoint nationality – somewhere Scandi’?) Christians. Their conversation is interesting/amusing to start with – especially as they have a local guide in tow, for whom this has to be a tough gig. He tells them all about the beer. They’re keen to taste it but they’re all teetotal... do the pub offer the full range in non-alcohol form? They’re eating too – when the meals arrive they decide that the guide should say grace. Poor sod.

Anyway, they changed the ambiance (and were more annoying than amusing at the time), but this was a fantastic place to be before their arrival. We’d return (in glory) – and have to sit in other rooms… none of which could match this one.

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233 Fri 171117 Jelínkova Plzeňská Pivnice, Prague

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

The 17th November is a Czech Bank Holiday to mark the “struggle for freedom and democracy”, harking back to the events (under different totalitarian regimes) in 1939 and 1989. The centre of Prague is busy, noisy. Roads are closed and students seem extremely politically minded: all of which seems very healthy. We buy some little Czech flag ribbons (worn like we wear poppies in November) and eventually find our way into this small Pilsner Urquell bar. It’s an excellent place, packed to the rafters with no more than two dozen punters. We manage to find a seat, but are required to share a table. That’s fine – until the blokes we’re sharing with decide it’s time to screen frightfully amusing (and invasively noisy) videos on their phones.