Cafe U Sudu

We'd heard about Prague's Cafe U Sudu from friends we'd met in cafes and taverns—the place was well-regarded for it's nighttime scene.

A few blocks from Wenceslas Square, one enters a narrow and very small establishment. A long copper-clad bar runs the length of the room on one side, the other has a half-dozen two-stool drinking ledges jutting from the wall. I was reminded of the bars Simenon has Chief Inspector Maigret frequent for a glass of beer or a Pernod while working on a difficult case (the French television series of Maigret mysteries was filmed in Prague).

At the end of the bar was a curtain that revealed two large rooms for drinking, and a stairway to a basement that stayed alive with jazz and rock until 5:00 in the morning and 6:00 on weekends.

Through a side door is an access to a broad courtyard with tables, the interior of the Sudu's building which takes up most of a square block.

Again I was waiting for Ezra, off on a side-trip...and I spotted an item on the blackboard (the Sudu has no formal menu) to play with the appetite: Pickled Cheese. In the city with the highest per-capita consumption of beer in the world (think Pilsner Urquel, Ceske Budweiser [the real thing...it has taste!]), I figured that something on the menu here would also “go well with beer”.

And did it ever.

The cheese was a camembert trimmed and pickled, drizzled slightly with a currant sauce and served with fresh bread. Light, creamy, piquant...

Wow!