We’ve been writing these annual round-ups for quite some time but year 2020 has been… well, you know. Difficult. You’d say a list of new openings for 2020 would be very short. Well, we’re happy to report you’d be wrong. Sure, Prague’s cocktail scene, for instance, did not experience a Big Bang in 2020, for obvious reasons, but the coffee scene has added a few hefty players. And there’s a few new restaurants, too. Yes, crazy. Let’s get to it.
Prague Coffee Scene in 2020
Letná has continued to add new coffee shops on its map in 2020. Not that there was any shortage of good coffee shops there but whatever. It all started with Kafe Omylem, a little espresso bar that took over the space of Sólista on Milady Horákové. Format Coffee opened a bit further down the street as the third coffee shop by the unstoppable Jackie Tran (you can hear him on our podcast here). This time it’s a tiny espresso bar at a great location: right at the Kamenická tram stop. Just a few blocks down, Acid Coffee opened in the courtyard of the Foundation and Center for Contemporary Arts.
Kafe Hrnek opened over at the busy Veletržní street, taking over the gentrification flag of that street from the 2jka wine bar and Broken Elbow bar a bit up. Hrnek’s lack of commitment to a single roaster, blue onion design ceramics and nicely adapted space have caught our attention, and we’ve become quite regular guests at this venue. Finally, Kolektor has opened in the Veletržní palác building, occupying the space abandoned by Kafé Jedna and offering specialty coffee and craft beers. It’s just at the beginning of its journey but we liked the coffee. (The kids’ corner is gone though.)
Karlín, another district known as a safe haven for specialty coffee, has added not one, not two, but three new places that serve specialty coffee. We will write about Etapa later, so let’s advance to EMA Espresso Bar. Yes, the second location opened at Křižíkova and it is beautiful, with wall art that pays homage to the district’s industrial past. Finally, Grounds have opened just a stone’s throw from the iconic Můj šálek kávy. It’s a fairly compact space with a big bar and a few seats but offers a great courtyard and beans by Rusty Nails. Good stuff.
We mentioned Jackie Tran before and it was fun, so let’s do it again: he opened Botanica Coffee Truck, his fourth coffee shop, in his mom’s flower shop in Vršovice. It is so instagrammable that if you are a girl in her twenties and don’t have a pic from there on your Instagram, you officially don’t exist. Megera Café has brought specialty coffee to Pražského povstání area, and Café Borzoi has added yet another specialty coffee outlet to Bubeneč and Dejvice (which is awesome because that’s where we live).
The historical centre also got its share of great coffee shops. Traffik Coffee opened in January over at Petrská as an espresso bar and sandwich shop by some usual suspects - the guys you may know from, in chronological order, Anonymous Coffee, Eska and Soffee. This has been one of the openings of the year on the coffee front for sure, bringing top notch coffee to the Petrská čtvrť and becoming one of our top coffee favorites. Just a few minutes’ walk away in Dlážděná, Prokop Croissant opened in a remodelled space, coming over from Nusle Beans and brining specialty coffee and plain and filled croissants to that part of the New Town. Great addition, too.
Finally, Kampa Café has opened at Zborovská, literally just across the street from Café Savoy. It takes balls to do that, so we’re very happy it happened. Specialty coffee is on the menu, along with some sweets and food - think light lunches and weekend brunches. And just a few days ago, the Kro family has introduced its youngest sister - Kro Coffee right next to Kro Kitchen. Coffee is served by Tereza, formerly of Doubleshot glory, and Michal of Pauseteria.
So twelve new specialty coffee shops and venues? Not bad for a year that sucked as much as 2020. This has just solidified the position of specialty coffee in Prague - it’s just the new standard. (It is genuinely strange when a new coffee shop opens in Prague today and offers anything but specialty coffee.)
Prague Bakeries in 2020
There were many times in 2020 when carbs seemed to be the only sensible solution to anything, so this must have been a good year for bakeries. And it kinda was.
First, Kro Bakery opened in Vršovice, and boy was the timing right - a 400 m2 space that incorporates a bakery, fermentation rooms and a kitchen that can roast 120 chickens at a time, this was a godsend for Kro when the first lockdown hit. Their breads, potato buns (that were part of our first Eating Alone Together dinner), croissants and bolle quickly won us and the crowds over. They even made the pizza dough for both of our pizza nights we organised during the shutdowns.
Just a few blocks up in Vinohrady, Kus koláče by Nika (you can hear her on our podcast here) and Jarda of former Eska glory has proved to be the winning formula for 2020. Their kolache and sweet baking were irresistible for the crowds who wanted to eat 2020 away, leading to lines of epic proportions on the weekends and sold out days from Monday to Friday. If there was a success story in 2020, this was it. Butter, carbs and rum a success story? Who would have guessed? Still in Vinohrady, the beloved Donut shop has moved from Jiřího z Poděbrad to Lublaňská.
On the other side of the river, Praktika opened a new shop over at Letná district, and why did they do this to us? Their sesame seed bread is now in our kitchen at all times, available any time, which is at the same time a great and terrible piece of news. Their shop at Milady Horákové is small but packs Praktika’s entire portfolio, plus some produce and drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
On the sweeter side of the spectrum, Dortíkovo has opened their own shop over in Nusle, giving a safe haven to what formerly was a business based on online orders of bespoke cakes. Also, IF Café has become IPPA Café as a result of a messy divorce settlement. Guess that’s what happens when your husband is the official owner of the company… and a bit of an a*hole. The transition on social media hasn’t really been smooth, leading IPPA Café to ban comments for a while. Meanwhile Iveta Fabešová (the „IF“ in IF Café) has begun to make pastries under her name again, for now from the kitchen of the Diplomat hotel and via the internet only. What a story and what a messy ending to a relationship. Hey, can happen to any of us. We’re poking a bit of fun, but we wish all the stakeholders all the best in 2021, honestly.
Prague wine bars in 2020
Not a lot to report here, just two openings. First, Silva, the former head sommelier at Eska, has opened Total Wine Bar over at Vinohrady. The focus is great natural wines from just about anywhere, plus Champagnes. This is a fun little place that wants you to party on high quality, honest-to-god natural wines. If this were closer to us, we’d be regulars. Check out Anna’s lobster roll nights, really.
Also, Marko Jelič, aka Winegeek, has opened a shop on Řezáčovo náměstí sq. in Holešovice, adding an offline shop to his predominantly online business of distributing and selling natural wines from near and afar. A great synergy especially with the Saturday Heřmaňák farmers markets on the same square.
Prague Restaurants and bistros in 2020
It all started so nice on January 1, with the official opening of Etapa in Karlín. (We may have put Etapa in our previous roundup too, given the few days of test operation in 2019, but the official opening was on January 1.) Etapa was another success story of 2020, coming from nothing to success and then, when the coronavirus hit… …having even more success. We guess not being stuck in a rut, committed to a years-long business model and being light on their feet pays dividends when you need to react to quickly changing business conditions. Anyway, Etapa has quickly won the hearts of people in Karlín and wider Prague through a combination of tasty food, great coffee and products to buy home, and an unparalleled user/customer experience. Good job, Gabi and Petr!
The second success story of 2020, yet to fully unfold, is the reopening of Čestr. We had been waiting for long, long years after the original Čestr had to shut down due to a comprehensive remodelling of the building, but it was worth it. The new Čestr had to fill in big shoes (we’re pretty sure everybody asked for the mashed potatoes and truffle sauce of the original), and it did so with flying colours. The new Čestr is more refined, lighter on its feet, while still being the good old Čestr that focuses on local meat and comforting dishes. Great stuff.
Sacra restaurant opened in the spring in the Sacre Coeur area, with a kitchen headed by Bára Šimůnková (you can listen to her on our podcast here), a chef that worked in multiple NYC’s three-Michelin-star restaurants. They were just making a name for themselves with her organic vegetable-forward and refined dishes when the coronavirus hit, and we’re not sure how they’ll cope, since they’ve decided not to do delivery. Just a few blocks away, CJ26 opened with refined menu with Italian inspirations, which is not a surprise given that the chef previously worked at Pastař and in Four Seasons’ Allegro restaurant.
A few relocations and second branches opened this year: Amuní, many peoples’ favorite pizza in Prague, moved from Břevnov to a more accessible spot at Vinohradská. (Which reminds us that the one thing that should have opened and did not yet is the expected Prague location of Pilsen’s Da Pietro pizza.) Pho Bar, one of our favorite Pho spots in town, opened a new location over at Národní třída, and Paprika, our go to when we need a hummus and falafel fix, opened a new place very near Anděl.
Speaking of Vietnamese cuisine, Tomáč Cibulka of former La Degustation glory and his wife opened Nhà hai hành at Drtinova near Anděl. A super fun Vietnamese bistro that cooks quite differently from the rest of them. Worth checking out. Bufet rose from the ashes of Grils in the Ambiente-run courtyard that also includes Lokál Hamburk and Dva kohouti. It has a gril outside and offers simple fast food done well. Their fried chicken sandwich was one of the bites of 2020 for us.
Sasy.Re brought a bit of Naples to the colonies… we mean the outskirts of Prague, and by a „bit of Naples“, we mean pizza Napoletana done pretty darn well. An odd place for a cool pizza place but hey, you have to start gentrification somewhere. And after pop-ups, Teplá kačka has found a proper brick and mortar establishment at the foot of the Letná hill, offering its version of some dim sum dumplings and Asian-inspired dishes.
But the centre of town was pretty alive, as well. Yalta Craft Bistro made some waves with their modern updates on some Czech classics (their dill sauce ravioli were fantastic) and craft beers. It still felt a bit weird eating on a patio on Wenceslas square, but if we’re supposed to reclaim the city centre from mass tourism, we have to start somewhere. Talking about weird places, Look Kotva is a fairly ambitious neo bistro opened in the Kotva department store. Confession: we haven’t made it there yet but it looks nice on the internet and we’ve heard nice things. And for a splash of the 90s, Daniela’s by Barock opened on Malé náměstí, with a kitchen that steers towards the healthy and cool.
What else? Dům Radost over in Žižkov opened a nice bar both at the roof and in the cinema (Kino Přítomnost), and we think that’s it.
So… 34 new restaurants in 2020? It’s a wonder anything opened at all, given the circumstances. Have you been to any, most of these? Below is a downloadable cheat sheet that lists them all. You can print it out and put it on your fridge or something. We know, we know: new year new me, right? But once you break your new year’s resolutions, give these guys a try. They will need it.
Have a great 2021, everyone!