One thing I regularly miss when I’m having coffee outside Croatia: the glass of water that the waiter brings with any type of coffee you order without even having to ask for it. When the waiter in Regular.Bar brought us a whole glass bottle of cucumber water, I knew I had the next spot to write about. Zagreb needs more places like this.

Regular.Bar finds itself in a secluded yard right on Britanac square. Yards like this are common in Zagreb’s center, and still I’m always surprised when I enter them and feel like I have found myself decades in the past. The house walls looking on the yard are usually way more torn down that the ones looking on over the streets and even in the most central area of Zagreb, around Trg Bana Jelačića and the beginning of Ilica street, those yards look very homey, with laundry drying from the windows and long balconies that are being used as extra storage places and little smoking areas.

Some of those yards hide unexpectedly smart places like galleries, design-stores and chic bars. And although they are mostly in the city center, finding those places always makes me feel like finding out secretes about the town only a few know.