U Stareho Pivovaru

Down a steep hill, but easy walk, from Hotel Monica into the Branik neighborhood of Prague, one passes U Stareho Pivovaru (the Old Brewery). It’s a tavern/restaurant once associated with the first brewery in the City—the brewery has long ago been assimilated by larger concerns and moved from the place, but the neighborhood watering-hole remains…as well as a large menu of almost exclusively Czech dishes (the only items not Czech [and not on the menu in that language] are pasta offerings]).

Although I’ve tried many things in the Pivovaru, I always come back to the goulash: A large plate of delicately spiced and tender chunks of beef in a rich gravy into which the onions and vegetables of the dish have all but disappeared.

Also on the plate is a row of knedliky, the traditional Czech bread dumpling that is one of Cuisine’s superior delivery systems for sauces of any sort. The half-inch thick dumplings are cut from a roll the size of a good baguette and arrive barely surfacing above the goulash’s heavenly gravy. Also, we ordered to split a side plate of sauerkraut…and the Pivovaru has as good a red and traditional sauerkraut as anyplace on the planet. French fires (they’re called hranolky—rectangular—) can be ordered instead of the knedliky…but frites can pretty much be had anywhere.

I took a friend there in 1988: When we entered, his nose wrinkled a bit; The dark wainscoting and wood tables & chairs of the place, along with the smoke-smudged walls and well-worn table cloths gave him the sense of something perhaps not overly cleanly; when we left, after a terrific meal, he smiled at me and said, “I thought it was grimy at first—but it’s just quite old…and, God! The food!”

(Author’s note: Ezra and I chose our restaurants by the look of the menus available—and the absence of an English translation for the dishes was often the deciding factor— but price can be a factor for anybody. This night, our main courses (of the same price), four Becharovka liquors (a smooth, sweet, herby drink) and four pints of beer (the house brew at the Pivovaru is Gambrinus, but we went with the Pilsner Urquell) came to a total of less than $25.00 for the both of us. The lesson is: Don’t confine yourself to the touristy parts of any town or city—people live and eat in the neighborhoods!...and do it sumptuously.)