Archives for “Coffee & tea” tag

For sweet lovers with refined taste, patisserie St. Tropez is a very dangerous place, where your passion for chocolate can fully break out.

Under the name Passion Chocolat the French married couple Musso ran their company at Vinohrady neighborhood, in 2009 they relocated further into the city centre to the passage at Dům U Nováků (just a couple footsteps from Wenceslas square).

The interior of the patisserie feels airy and holds our interest with the prep place where you can observe the production…fortunately all the goodies are separated by a glass wall. The place is strictly non-smoking.

Croissants for breakfast, cakes and tarts of various flavors to afternoon coffee or a cup of tea, delicious chocolate pralines, popular macarons or gateaux to order – everybody will find his or her favorite in St. Tropez.

If you have a dilemma, which one among the many sweets you should choose, try a couple of mini-sweets out (I also recommend the macarons, e.g. the lavender one) and then let the smiley madame Nadine pack the one which you like the most for you in its classic size.

If I want a small treat or a snack break downtown, I often go to Ovocný Světozor (ovocný = fruity), which is strategically situated in the passage Světozor just nearby a cinema. Ovocný Světozor has been here since the seventies (under a slightly different name) and its popularity continues nowadays.

You can find several branch stores across the city, but this one is the most popular one. I like their ‘watery’ ice cream (it’s more of a sorbet than a proper ice cream) which is one of the most popular items there and people are often waiting in queue for it, especially in warm and sunny days. If you don’t want to sit inside or can’t find a place, you can sit in Františkánská zahrada.

Ovocný Světozor has a big assortment of cakes (especially the fruity ones) and ice cream cups. As far as the cups are concerned, you can choose between the ones on the menu or compose your own one choosing from fruits, ice creams and topping components.

If you are not in the mood for something sweet, try the Czech tapas – chlebíčky. What is a “chlebíček”? Something typically Czech (Czechoslovak), not really healthy (often with mayonnaise), but incredibly tasty . Technically speaking, it’s usually a piece of white bread roll, covered with different stuff – butter, ham, salami, cheese, eggs, cucumber, potato salad etc. – there are many types of chlebíčky, don’t hesitate and taste some!

One my favorite places near Namesti Miru is a pleasant place named Bio Zahrada (Bio garden) which is situated in Belgicka street. 

As the name suggests, Bio zahrada is a shop with organic food including fresh vegetables (sometimes meat) and also functions as a point of supply for veggie boxes (which is becoming a growing popular trend among certain people).

Bio zahrada is also a nice non-smoking coffee house, where you can have a cup of really good coffee (try the single origin coffees prepared in a french press) and a delicious dessert – various types of cakes (my favourite one is currently the lemon tart).

Besides the cakes you can get a proper lunch there – from Monday to Friday, there is always one soup, one main dish (often vegetarian) and a salad. The menu changes every day. Now when the spring is in full bloom, it is very pleasant to take a table outside in the courtyard garden.

Bio Zahrada is not only a friendly place for getting together over a cup of coffee but also a place for occasional events like various tastings (coffee, chocolate, wine etc.), scrapbooking courses etc. 

Innovation comes with youth and youngsters will tell you fun ends with adulthood but luckily university students do not care about any of this. They live in a different world, which you can either enter by spending long hours studying, or simply by coming to their club. You will not feel like an intruder, no worries. They like to share, if it’s music, art projections, ideas or a table.

Any tourist can pass by Klub K4 every day, and will not catch sign of it. Klub’s entrance is in the hallway of building no. 20 in Celetná street – street heavily winking at foreigners walking through Prague past souvenir shops and strange offers. Get local experience and sneak in the wooden door while leaving the crowd behind. Choose an event on the site or simply drop by for a delicious drink and be surprised by the latest art exhibition or concert.

As Jakub, caretaker of the gallery, whilst drinking large beer, said: “It is so ‘entspannt’ here”. And I could not say it better!

I often hear from my friends and family that this cake and that tart were much larger and cheaper a certain time ago! What the cause is for these thoughts is a deep question – maybe we grow and the cakes do not. Well, in this sweetshop you can be sure the sizes are like in those childhood days, but, honestly, I cannot bet on the prices as well.

Erhartova Cukrarna is not only interesting simly because of the perfect desserts they prepare, but also because of the location. In this very spot the sweetshop has been located since 1937 when the building was built. The pure functionalist interior was very gently renovated just few years ago and, truly, it is a miracle the interior was not destroyed during the last era.

The new unobtrusive design is balanced by a rich variety of the desserts. From little soft cookies to large heavy cakes for cream lovers, I believe each of you can choose the right one. Of course you can sit inside and accompany the cake with a coffee. Here is another important message for quality lovers – all desserts are prepared right in the sweetshop and the bakers are using high-quality and natural products like real cream. And that is rare to see these days.

Continue to Stromovka (check the Stromovka article) to walk after all the sweets you could not resist to eat or to Bio Oko (check the Bio Oko article) to see a nice movie!