Have you heard of the Prague Beer Zoo? Come along on a beer tour of Prague
We give beer a good name
Combine your love of beer with one of our courses, beer walks or business events. You'll learn how to spot a good pour, and how to do it yourself. Wherever you might be.
We invite you to a five-hour tour of Prague led by our bartenders, Lucka Janečková or Tomáš Krčmář, during which you will see Prague Castle, walk around the Lesser Town, Charles Bridge and the Old and New Towns and at the end you will try your hand at tapping beer. The route is approximately three kilometres long and you can eat and drink as much as you like. And as a bonus, it's all downhill.
Let's do it!
Our starting point is U Černého vola, a place that's been in the hospitality business for centuries. "The house dates back to 1492 – a year well remembered for the discovery of America. But it is possible that there was a pub here much earlier, because the walls used to go through here – you can still see remnants of them in the cellars. In the 19th and 20th centuries, this was a pub where the First Republic's political representatives, painters, writers and other interesting personalities used to go," says Lukáš Berný, historian and author of Where the Muses Drink, all about how legendary and exemplary this establishment is.
We recommend that you order the dark Kozel, they do a great job of tapping it! And if in the future you get thirsty in the morning, remember that here, you can order a beer at 10 a.m.!
Next, we go up to Kuchyň at Prague Castle, where you can have a beer with the best view of Prague and a fantastic lunch.
When you've properly filled your belly, we continue to the U Hrocha pub. At first glance, it might seem that this is just another old pub, but that's not quite true.
"It's been here since 1994, which is more than a quarter of a century. It may not be that young anymore, but if you compare it to U Černého vola, it's almost a new pub. In the nineties, when classic pubs started to disappear, because they were pushed out of the Lesser Town by tourism, regulars from the surrounding pubs moved in to here. I always say that history makes the genius loci. But here the genius loci is huge, so it's probably not just the history, and mainly the people," reflects Lukáš Berný.
Remembering Hrabal at U Zlatého Tygra
There is truth in wine and inspiration in beer. At least that's what the writer Bohumil Hrabal believed when he regularly visited the beer hall at U Zlatého Tygra in Husova Street, the next stop on our tour. And he found inspiration! It is said that many of his stories are inspired by what he saw, heard and experienced in this old beer hall, which became famous in the 1930s, when Mr. František Skořepa worked behind the tap.
"Hrabal's last books from the 1990s, such as The Pink Cavalier or Evening Stories for Cassio, are stories in which he sits in the pub and observes what is happening around him. It's a beautiful chronicle of the 1990s. The pub here goes beyond the role of a refreshment room, and thanks to Hrabal it speaks to culture," comments Lukáš Berný.
And you may have heard that in 1994, Václav Havel brought then US President Bill Clinton here for a beer. But beware, you don't just order a beer here, it's brought to you! The servers walk back and forth with full pints and whoever finishes theirs finds a new one lands on the table. So, if you've had enough, don't be afraid to say.
U Zlatého slona
The penultimate stop is U Zlatého slona (At the Golden Elephant). "It's very cheerful there. This pub opened in 2011 and there are several things that make it memorable. First, apart from the fact that they serve very good Pilsner beer, it has a year-round garden, so you can sit outside in December. Besides, it has golden elephants painted on the walls inside," says Lucka, adding that when you go there you can ask for a kind of ID card. "There are 100 little golden elephants on it. For every beer you drink you get an elephant. If you drink 100 of them, they give you one on the wall and you can sign it," she explains the original "elephant" experience.
And the experience is rounded off with a visit to Lokál Dlouhááá,where the Prague Beer Zoo ends. There, the bartenders will take you through corners where ordinary mortals can't go, and you can also tap your own beer (and drink that too)!
If you go to the Prague Beer Zoo with Lucka or Tomáš, you will learn a lot more about the famous taps and historical muses. Grab a bunch of friends, block at least six hours on your calendar and get ready for a refreshing dose of Czech beer and history.
And where did the Beer Zoo come from anyway?
According to historian Lukáš Berný the exact date is unknown, but what is certain is that it was a folk idea! And for Ambiente, it was rediscovered by bartender Lukáš Svoboda. "I was first told about the Prague Beer Zoo by regulars in the pubs U Pinkasů and Konvikt, where I used to be a bartender. Even then I found out how good it is!" says Lukáš Svoboda, who is responsible for the creation of the Tap School.
"My cousin, who used to work for me at the Konvikt, persuaded his girlfriend to come and see him. She didn't really want to, because she was afraid that we would be sitting in pubs and there would be no time for souvenirs. And then I had an idea and I said to my cousin: It's not going to work like this. Promise her that she will see Hradčany, Prague Castle, Nerudovka, the Lesser Town, Charles Bridge, Old Town, New Town and the National Theatre...," says Lukáš.
His girlfriend was finally convinced and said she didn't even notice that she was walking the Prague Beer Zoo trail. "She was a girl from Moravia and the tourist restaurants along the way didn't attract her with their interior nor their prices, so she took my advice and went with us to traditional picturesque pubs off the main tourist route. You know how it goes: "...my feet hurt and I'm thirsty and I need to go to the toilet...". Even then, I thought what a help it would be for a lot of families who can't agree whether to go to the Castle or the pub," says Lukáš, adding that this is why it is ideal to accommodate both sides.
"A couple of years after that, I read Lukáš Berný's book Where the Muses Drink. What a beautiful read! Among other things, it describes the experience of the cartoonist Jan Vyčítal, who once upon a time donated a cartoon on the subject to the pub at the Golden Tiger, but the picture was quickly "lost". When Jan Vyčítal and I were discussing the decoration of Lokál Pod Divadlem in Pilsen, I remembered this story. I asked him to find the illustration and we bought it. And that was the last impulse to bring the Prague Beer Zoo to life," Lukáš concludes the story.
