Even though Dobrá Čajovna is a Czech-born franchise, they do an absolutely stellar job of keeping…read morethings both local (with their art, atmosphere, book selection) and global, with their fine assortment of teas, spices, and ingredients from every corner of the Earth.
We didn't have too many plans for the night, but decided to hang at this tea house for just a bit on an evening that was particularly frigid, making a hot beverage in our bellies imperative.
Not visible from the main road, be prepared to walk down the cutest, covered brick alleyway with world art and some pretty demented (in a good way) statues. If it's winter, when you first walk into Dobrá Čajovna your glasses will fog up from the heat and humidity inside. This is a good thing... because it's basically the only time in the whole trip that I could feel my toes and enjoy not having to be layered in a million shirts and jackets.
We were immediately greeted and sat by the nicest man ever. I didn't catch his name, unfortunately, but I've since renamed him 'Leo Sayer' because he earned the title of 'One Man Band' (also one of my all time favorite songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2o2kdd_Veo). He's the host, server, brewer, chef, guru, entertainment, and more.
Leo brought us the tea and food menu, which had about 100 pages of tea. One member of my group is regular tea aficionado, having traveled up, down, and around Japan in search of each region's finest. I enjoyed looking through the multilingual book of teas and reading the descriptions, but I left it to my cohort to decide on a pot for us to split. He chose a high-grade, rare, Japanese green tea that to me tasted like canned spinach and came with some very specific instructions from Leo, but he poured and treated our first infusion, so it was all good in the hood.
Our friends got the Lover's Tea for 2, which is served in a super phallic tea pot. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the story of 'Double D*ck Dude' from Reddit, but the pot basically looked like that guy's junk in teapot form. A twisted version of Disney's Mrs Potts, if you will. I got to try it and it was pretty damn good. I couldn't have poured that teapot to save my life, but it was good when Leo or someone else did it for me.
I was particularly hungry after missing the opportunity to eat dinner three night's in a row, I insisted on ordering a bunch of stuff even though my friend's told me not to and that I should wait for dinner later. But, I do what I want and what I wanted was to not risk missing dinner a fourth night in a row because restaurants stop serving food so early. So we ordered a cookie plate, some hummus, and perhaps the best sandwich I've ever had in my life. It was a wheat pita with hummus, olive salad, cardamom and all the rest of the spices you'd expect in a chai tea, but sprinkled on a sandwich with some pistachio bits. It was so good that I devoured the first one instantly and flagged Leo down to order a second one. Def get that sandwich.
The decor is like being in a Moroccan gypsy cave, and the far wall is line with odd old-timey wooden puzzle games and toys as well as a large mix of both children's, historic, and erotic books arranged and displayed in crates like you'd see in a record store.
I loved this location, but if you happen to be in Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Bratislava, Kutná Hora, Burlington, Vermont, Madison, Wisconsin, Portland, Maine, and Asheville, North Carolina, and more throughout the CR, I def recomend checking Dobrá Čajovna out.
