U Kalendů, Prague, Czechia

Rašínovo nábř. 383/58, 128 00 Nové Město, Czechia
https://www.ukalendu.ambi.cz/menu/jidlo
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Along the front of the Vltava river, staring out across the water to the Baroque architecture that sits opposite, there is a small bakery, likely to have a queue forming at its front door.

If you get there early in the morning, you might be able to sneak in without too much issue but as locals congregate to get their hands on their morning pastries, you may have to wait around for a few moments but its well worth the extra few minutes.

U Kalendů is a kitchen-come-bakery-come pub that has sat on the riverfront for over a century, serving up local cuisine. I couldn’t tell you at what point they also pivoted towards speciality coffee but here we are, ten o’clock in the morning, queuing for a bake and a brew.

A lot of the pastries are things I’ve not particularly seen before, many with a yeast paste (I guess like Marmite?) or yeast flakes topping off fruit compotes or the sort. It all looks deliciously intriguing but distinctly lacking in vegan options, which sort of weirdly jars with the readily available oat lattes they’re serving.

Either way, I pick up a fabulously fruity coffee and circle back for a bag of beans. Roasting them themselves, this adds to the general aura of the community feel this spot has and as I take a coffee and waddle over the road to sip it and people watch the waterside market goers, the sharp, berry-esque- flavours spritz my tongue in a delightful pick-me-up.

Prague has plenty of speciality coffee shops that I don’t have time to explore, so I’m extremely glad we managed to find this one at the foot of where we are staying, so close and so sublime in its offering that I jangle with pleasure at the thought of taking a bag of beans back to London with me.