Café Mlýnská

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Key details

Where? City Centre | Lesser Town

Type of establishment Tea & Coffee | Bar

Cuisine

Budget $$

You can hear the sounds of a mill, or rather a little mill, on the banks of Čertovka canal. Kavárna Mlýnská is the first on the riverbank downstream after Smíchov, and can be reached by a little bridge connected to Kampa Island. Originally an Early Baroque building, the mill underwent rebuilding many times after lying in ruins. In its time, it has served as a joiner’s workshop, and has housed flats. In 1995, it returned to its original function, but now coffee is ground instead of flour; the sound of chatter replaces the gentle turning of the waterwheel.
Once a small hydroelectric power plant has been installed, guests will be able to drink Vinohrady beer on tap, and Kavárna Mlýnská is a popular example of a cross between a pub and a café. The latter has a slightly Bohemian, intellectual atmosphere, with good coffee and tea. Exhibitions and other occasional cultural events are staged there. Mlýnská offers the standard café menu, with sandwiches, hummus and such like. The pub offers something traditional: beer with bread and lard... for example ... In addition, it tends to be free of tourist crowds. Guests stay for a long time, as is customary in friendly inexpensive pubs and cafés.

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Want to know a secret?

If you love lounging at the bar, there’s an added treat in for store for you. The counter is the work of the artist David Černý. Inspired by the views of the nearby National Theatre (where you’ll see the inscription “Národ sobě” (The Nation unto Itself), he created a transparent surface filled with an eclectic mix of objects from loyal regulars, with the inscription “Visitors unto Themselves”.