Czech Coffee Culture

The kavarna is an inherited Central European institution: marble tables, bentwood chairs, newspapers clipped to wooden rods, high ceilings and waiters who leave you alone for as long as you like. The grandest rooms cluster in central Prague, with more in Brno and Olomouc, and the unwritten rule is that one coffee buys the table for an afternoon. Alongside it survives turek, coarse ground coffee brewed by pouring hot water straight into the cup and waiting for the grounds to sink, still standard in village pubs and older places. Since the 2010s a specialty roasting scene has grown in Vinohrady, Karlin, Holesovice and across Brno, working with filter brews and single origins.

What you actually see

• The kavarna room - marble, mirrors, bentwood and newspapers on wooden rods.
• Turek - grounds brewed in the cup, drunk carefully down to the sludge.
• The cake counter - venecek, vetrnik and cream slices meant to go with the coffee.
• The roastery scene - filter brews and single origins in the inner districts.

When to go

Cafes open from mid morning and the older rooms fill through the afternoon, which is when the habit makes sense: the point is sitting, not turnover. Specialty places keep shorter hours, many closing by early evening and some all day Sunday. Weekend late mornings in the inner districts are the busiest hour of the week.

Honest expectations

The famous historic rooms in the centre charge for the room, and the coffee in several of them is ordinary at best. Turek is gritty by design and unpleasant if you drink to the bottom. Service in the old-style cafes is slow and can be brusque, which regulars consider correct rather than rude. Specialty cafes are good but close early and are often cashless.

Nearby

Vinohrady, Karlin and Holesovice hold most of Prague's roasteries.