Cafe Review 1 - Mūj Šálek Kávy and Pražírna

Introduction
As you know this blog has always been a place for me to experiment and explore my writing talents. I've written ghost stories, gangster stories crime and crime noir as well as my normal rompy stories.  Something I have never tried is to write creative non-fiction, until now. This week, to celebrate the launch of my new blog - Czech Hipster Coffee - I am publishing my cafe reviews here. 
Over the last few months I have been exploring the hipster coffee hangouts in Prague and I thought I would write a short blog reflecting on my experiences by writing non-reviews. Non-reviews don't focus on the wares on offer but try to describe the atmosphere and ambiance of the place. For the background to these reviews click here. Please let me know your thoughts on the new blog via the usual channels. Thank you.

Mūj Šálek Kávy

The famous
cookies.
Reproduced with
kind permission.

I feel I should start this blog with Mūj Šálek Kávy for a couple of reasons. One, it is the daddy of all hipster cafés. Any self-respecting, coffee drinking, Bohemian beatnik wants to be seen drinking Double Shot coffee in Karlin and apparently there are a lot of self-resecting, coffee drinking beatniks because getting a table in Šálek is like trying to get a new iPhone in Prague in the first week after release. 

Secondly, to quote my friend who first took me to the Karlin Mecca of coffee, I 'was a coffee virgin when I first went  to Šálek. And, like with any first time, I felt a bit awkward, a bit unsure. I lacked the moves, the style, the taste buds.' So Šálek can be compared to Gwen in Maggie’s Milkman, the horny housewife who showed Mal the tricks of the trade. Without Šálek there would be no blog. 

Bacon and Irish Whiskey
Cup Cake
Reproduced with kind permission.

So what makes Šálek special? Šálek is a jack-of-all-trades type café. Some of the others favour coffee over food, or cakes over coffee, but Šálek does the lot; coffee, tea, a full breakfast, and full lunch and dinner menus. Then there are the sweets, cakes, cup cakes, cookies and ice cream. I’ve documented elsewhere the effect the cookies can have on a man but the cup cakes are equally good. Rumour has it it's the mascarpone instead of butter that provides the lightness but whatever it is, they are a must have. The quirky array of cup cake flavours also keeps the Bohemian beatnik’s taste buds satisfied and the more conservative turning their noses up at the ideas, (see photo), mind you there are still no sign of the speciality pineapple cupcakes that have been promised.  
Meanwhile the staff are plentiful and friendly, from barefooted waitresses, through baristas with tattooed feet to flat-capped baristas, they run the gamut of all hipster styles and fashions. Do I like Šálek? Difficult to say, of course like any first time it will have a special place in my heart and the coffee and the food are good and the cakes are to die for. But it’s a little hard-core for a non-hipster like me. I would say if you are comfortable with your hipstuality, then you will love Mūj Šálek Kávy. But if you are still in the hipster closet, some of the other alternatives might be a gentler introduction to the lifestyle.

For the website of the cafe visit here

Pražírna

Many staff

There always seems to be far too many staff buzzing around behind the counter at Pražírna. 6 or 7 baristas and serving staff seems to be a bit over the top for a café of its size. But I suppose if you specialise in making coffee that takes a while to drip, then you need the staff to watch it drip. And if you pride yourself on cheesecake, you need people to cut the perfect slice; the geometry of the slice is a fine art. They are a friendly enough bunch and working here looks fun but it always appears there is one too many and maybe the customers are getting in the way. The other perturbing thing about this café is the amount of reserved signs on the tables. At first sight this can seem that there is nowhere to sit, but don't be put off, on closer inspection you see that the table says it’s reserved for 18.45 when the clock has hardly struck two; so there is plenty of time to perch and drink Pražírna's self-roasted coffee for an hour or so before being turfed out. 

Tanzania Drip Coffee

If Macbooks have become the measure of how hipster a place is, than this place is hipster heaven, Macbooks prevail among the computer users and even the non Macbook users have the sleek Windows versions that look suspiciously applesque. If facial hair is your measure of beatnik, then you will find Pražírna suitably beardy.  But despite the preponderance of apple products, and moustaches, I would not call this place strictly hipster. 
As I sit in the front room now I am the youngest of the 11 customers and by quite some distance. When the silver set are not hogging the tables, there’s a tendency for prams to block the walkways as expat mothers discuss world problems like the lack of beetroot in Marks and Spencer. Then, when the mums shuffle out the place is taken over by English teachers pontificating on the use of the present perfect simple and like most pontificators, getting it wrong. So maybe this is the perfect place to start your hipster coffee journey, the coffee is good, the staff are helpful and if you ignore the reserved signs there will be place for you to while away an hour or two. 

For the website of the cafe visit here

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