Bar in medieval style. The Middle Ages in the cafe "Gothic" on the Angarsk

Today we have prepared an acquaintance with the elite in oriental style.

Its interior is inspired by the richness and chic of Japanese culture. Sophisticated and opulent, it has a modern ambiance and cozy ambiance. A simple palette of materials creates an unforgettable impression. Asian motifs will give you a good mood and positive emotions.

The establishment used organic materials, wooden accessories, metal and glass, together they create an aesthetic harmony. Bronze tinting, mirrors and natural stones formed a proportional national flavor. The original partition is admirable: the old doors seem to have been taken from an old medieval castle.

Exclusive designer furniture complements the style direction. A variety of shapes and decor, colors and textures help to avoid monotony. Tables and chairs, which are completely different from each other, are used to create a spirit of intimacy and privacy.

Due to the use of dark shades, the inside is a little gloomy, but the use of spotlights and unusual pendant lamps, the restaurant is beautifully lit with soft light and complements the atmosphere of the room.

In addition to the unique design, it is worth noting the amazing panoramic view from the windows, which opens on Jakarta from the 46th floor. The luxurious spectacle is breathtaking; few restaurants of this kind can boast both such exquisite decoration and the amazing landscape of a modern city.

Project: Metaphor Interior Architecture.

We present to your attention a chapter from Mark Forsyth's book "A Brief History of Drunkenness from the Stone Age to the Present Day: What, Where, When and for What Reason".

A Brief History of Drunkenness from the Stone Age to the Present: What, Where, When, and What About / Mark Forsythe; Per. from English. — M.: Alpina non-fiction, 2018.

We all imagine a medieval tavern perfectly. Where do we get this idea - God knows. Maybe from the films about Robin Hood and his merry shooters who made their way under the cover of Sherwood Forest to the village tavern in the days of the good King Richard. There, ruddy fellows sipped True English Ale from mugs topped with foam caps, which were brought by a puffy hostess. The livelier our imagination, the more magnificent the forms of the hostess and the more cheerful the fellows. A violinist chirps in the corner, a light night breeze shakes a neatly painted sign.

There was nothing of the kind.

To explain why, we must first clarify some of the terms deliberately misused in the previous paragraph. Nowadays, you can open a bar and call it "Ship Yard", "Ship Tavern" or simply "Ship" - no one will catch the difference. But in the Middle Ages and later, until the end of the 18th century, there was a clear distinction between an inn, a tavern and beer.

Inn

The inn was a hotel, and quite expensive. There, as the name implies, there were rooms for lodging for the night and stables for horses. Traveling nobility stayed at inns, as well as merchants and other wealthy people. The poor were usually not allowed beyond the threshold. On the one hand, this was done to maintain the brand of the establishment, and on the other hand, due to the peculiar pricing policy at the inns. The lodging itself was quite cheap, and the owner earned on various additional services - good food, wine, laundry, caring for horses, and so on.

Such a phenomenon as a village inn did not exist in principle - just as the village Grand Hotel does not exist in our time. Hotels of this class were found only in cities, usually large ones. It was an imposing building in the market square, with a spacious courtyard. Court hearings were sometimes held there - perhaps only thanks to this circumstance Robin Hood could visit the inn.

On the outskirts of London, however, there were even simpler inns, because with the onset of darkness the city gates were closed and belated travelers had to spend the night "under the wall." In a British school you can hear from a slightly carried away teacher that English literature began with a pub, because "The Canterbury Tales" takes place in the Tabard tavern near London Bridge. However, the Tabard was still not a pub, but an inn. Just the kind where twenty-nine pilgrims with horses who came without warning could accommodate. As Chaucer notes, " there are many stables, rooms in the Tabard / And it has never been crowded in it. " Chaucer's guests are received and accommodated by Harry Bailey, the owner of the Tabard, and many readers see him as just a good-natured innkeeper, attendants. But this is not so. Harry Bailey owned an inn, which meant that he belonged to a circle of very successful entrepreneurs, and he was also a member of parliament and collected the newly introduced poll tax.

English literature does not start in a pub, it starts in a hotel.

taverns

Wine was served in taverns. And the wine was imported and therefore it was very, very expensive. A tavern is, roughly speaking, the equivalent of today's cocktail bar, and what kind of cocktail bar is there in the countryside?

Taverns were for the rich who wanted to party, which means that almost all of them were in London. It also means that the taverns were sometimes nasty places - that is, prostitutes and gamblers hung around there, because those who can afford wine, obviously can afford and other expensive sinful pleasures.

Shakespeare left us the most exhaustive and most beautiful description of a Tudor tavern - because it is in the Boar's Head in Eastcheap that Falstaff spends almost all his time and all his money. Falstaff is often misunderstood: it seems to readers that both he and his company are poor and rootless revelers. But Falstaff drinks sherry, and sherry (which came from Portugal) was the most expensive liquor available in Tudor England. It is as if now Falstaff asked only for champagne in a restaurant. Yes, Quickley's landlady's establishment isn't decent, but it isn't cheap either. In one place Shakespeare mentions that Falstaff, as usual, spent about six shillings on sherry - this is two or three times more than could be earned by manual labor in a week. That is, to continue the analogy, a modern-day Falstaff would sip his champagne in a tasteless striptease bar.

Shakespeare himself, I'm sure, drank wine. In his works, there are over a hundred references to wine and sherry, and only sixteen times ale is found. In addition to direct references, there is also a way of thinking: choosing a metaphor, he will oppose the dried-up wine to the life of the bastard, the sediment at the bottom of the barrel. The suggestion of drinking ale is usually taken by Shakespeare's characters as an insult. And this is consistent with the little we know about the poet's drinking habits. We know for a fact that he drank at the Tabard because he carved his name into the wood paneling there, and he most likely visited the Mermaid Tavern and Oxford's Golden Cross. But, as far as one can tell, he preferred the highest rank in everything.

It's a pity, because you really want to represent the literary giants as ordinary people who, like us, rolled into the pub in the evening. Today, only a lazy pub owner has not put in his place the saying of Dr. Samuel Johnson: "No human invention gives so much happiness as a good tavern or hotel."

And we know for sure what Dr. Johnson meant to say, since it was he who compiled the explanatory dictionary of the English language, from which I took the definitions of a tavern and an inn. Dr. Johnson deliberately omits mention of a third type of drinking establishment, the forerunner of the modern pub, the alehouse.

beer

And now, having learned all of the above, let's return to Robin Hood and his cheerful shooters, who tumble into the village pub of the times of Richard the Lionheart.

She still didn't exist.

In England at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries there was no such thing as a pub. There were simply no drinking establishments in the villages. At first glance it is strange. England without a pub is like Russia without vodka (by the way, there was no vodka in Rus' in those days either). There were no pubs because the people did not need them.

It's interesting, but the more you think about it, the more clearly you realize that there was really no point in pubs. Yes, you can drink there, but you can drink anywhere. And in the Middle Ages they really drank everywhere. At work, for example. There were, of course, monks who were given a miserable gallon of ale a day, as at Bewley Abbey. But everyone drank at work. Drinks were often included in the price - the wagon, in particular, could count on three pints of ale and some food in addition to the money. The landowner, hiring workers, also undertook to put them on a drink. That's how life was. This does not mean that everyone was drunk. A few pints of ale spread over a long, hard day in the fields won't get you drunk. But so satisfying. As they say, ale is liquid bread.

They also drank in the church. The medieval village church was not so much a place of worship as the center of social life (yes, worship was added on Sundays). Ball was played in the churchyard, songs were sung in the church hall. Ale was often distributed on holidays, at name days, weddings, baptisms and funerals. At a good funeral, you could have a great party. When the Bishop of Winchester was buried in 1319, a thousand gallons of ale were given to the poor. This, of course, is no longer a typical generosity, and yet the opportunity to receive free drinks at the church was commonplace.

But mostly the medieval Englishman drank at home. Together with household members, including children. Water was still a danger, and only the poorest of the poor were content with it. The principle of Abbot Elfric mentioned in one of the previous chapters - "When there is ale, then I drink ale, and I drink water when there is no ale" - has not lost its relevance. Almost everyone had ale. Cooking was not particularly difficult - there would be barley and water, well, you can flavor it with spices if you can find it. So, while the husband worked in the fields, the wife diligently brewed ale.

Brewing ale, as in ancient Mesopotamia, remained a female occupation. The wife was supposed to cook, clean, look after the children, brew ale and spin. Spinning and brewing of ale was also beneficial in that it provided additional income. In addition, the wife wove fabric for her husband's clothes, and she could also sell the surplus. In the Middle Ages, for a simple unmarried woman, there was essentially no other source of income other than spinning. And this source was so widespread that the "old maid" in English is still called spinster - from the verb spin - to spin. Moreover, -ster in this context is a feminine suffix, a man would be called a spinner. But the men did not spin. By analogy, a woman who brewed ale should have been called brewster - from the verb brew - brew, brew. And there really is such a word.

A woman who brewed ale for sale could also be called an elevaricator. Medieval ale, which had a very short shelf life, spoiled as early as the third or fourth day. Therefore, if the hostess, without calculating, brewed more ale than the household could drink, she hung a special “el sign” over the entrance - a horizontal stick with an ivy shoot tied at the end. At the threshold, she put up a barrel and sold excess ale to passers-by - anyone who had a container and a few coins with them. A passer-by could drink the purchased ale even in the field, even at home, even in the church. Having sold all the surplus, the hostess removed the sign and went to brew a new batch of ale.

This practice continued until the 14th century, when several circumstances coincided at once. First, people stopped drinking in church. Not because they didn't like it, it was because the church didn't like what they drink in it. Appointed in 1366 as Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Langham first threatened to excommunicate anyone who would participate in "drunken gatherings, which, substituting concepts, are called charitable gatherings."

Secondly, the principles of work on the ground have changed. Previously, a noble landowner hired peasants to cultivate his fields, but in the 14th century, the nobility realized that it was much easier to rent plots to peasants and let them plow. That is, now all the peasants who did not have a wife-elevator had to buy ale themselves. It turned out to be only at the hands of the hostesses. Now, however, the thirsty peasants showed up after the day's work—they wanted ale, but they also wanted somewhere to sit down to drink it. The hostesses began to let them into their kitchen. Thus the pub was born.

And thirdly, beer was invented. So far in this chapter, I have talked exclusively about ale, which is made from barley and water. The drink is really so-so. Nutritious? Yes. Alcoholic? Yes. Delicious, clean, foamy, refreshing? No. Something like runny oatmeal with lumps. The only way to somehow improve the taste is to add spices or herbs, and horseradish was most often used. But still, it was nothing more than a disguise of taste, an attempt to make something decent out of slop.

And then there was hops. Hops are the buds of the plant of the same name, and when they are added to ale, they make beer. The Europeans have been using this technique for centuries, while the British have lagged behind. First, hops were brought to London, and from there it slowly spread throughout England. The distribution was uneven - in Lancashire, until the middle of the 17th century, they still drank one ale, and Cornwall held on to it for a long time. There is even a poem about it:

I'm Cornish, I cook ale
He rips his throat like a rabid animal,
A lot is mixed in it with burning and stench,
As if the pigs were bathed in it by the whole herd.

But the majority still preferred the taste of hoppy beer. And beer had another giant advantage over ale—it didn't spoil. Beer can be stored for about a year, and if the barrel is well sealed, nothing will happen to it.

This allowed for mass production. Breweries appeared in every major city, producing large volumes of a wonderful drink, which was then supplied to local pubs (they were still called alehouse - "elite", although they had long since forgotten about the porridge-slurry). In breweries, beer was filtered, which made it better. The breweries were run and owned by men. The housewives-elevaritelnitsy could have been out of work, but they were not, because they still kept their small pubs, only now they bought beer for them, and did not brew it themselves.

pub crawl

Let's imagine that we are travelers and we have around the end of the 15th century in our yard. I want to drink - we have no strength, and, passing through another village, we decide to wet our throats. How can we do it?

First of all, you need to find a pub - you can identify it, as before, only by the "el sign". Signs (as well as their own names) at pubs began to appear only in the 1590s. Inns have been flaunting their names and signs for centuries, and pubs have begun to adopt this symbol of luxury as well. In the meantime, we are looking for a stick sticking out above the entrance with an ivy shoot tied at the end. Another sure sign is the ale bench, that is, as you probably guess, an ordinary bench put up outside at the threshold, on which, in good weather, you can drink beer on the stove. It is possible that they are playing something nearby (balls were most loved in those days) and betting on the game.

The door is open. So the law demanded, and they covered her only in the cold of winter. Any representative of the authorities should have been able to make sure that nothing inappropriate was going on inside, without crossing the threshold and without soiling himself by visiting a low-class institution. As a result, the pub was constantly blowing, but drafts and cold were an integral part of the Middle Ages, especially since glass windows were still rare. Everyone froze, so one of the main advantages of the beer house was the fire blazing in a large hearth. Few peasants could afford such luxury at home.

One of the main differences from a modern pub is immediately noticeable - there is no bar counter. This native to us, familiar and beloved attribute of a drinking establishment appeared only in the 1820s. So the beer hall we are looking at does not look like a pub at all, but more like an ordinary kitchen. In fact, that's what she is. A barrel of beer was stuck somewhere in the corner. There are also a couple of stools and benches, maybe one or two trestle tables. But all the furniture here is at most a couple of shillings. It's just a residence open to the public.

We almost certainly owe hospitality not to the owner, but to the hostess, the woman. It doesn't matter if she brews her own ale on site or buys beer on the side, keeping alehouses is still an almost exclusively female occupation. Of course, the hostess can be married, and then her husband officially owns the pub. But we still won’t find him, he does his main job while his wife makes her contribution. It is no less likely that the mistress will be a widow. The pub remained one of the few ways for a woman to earn money, and licenses for the maintenance of such establishments were issued to widows in pre-retirement times out of pity. Otherwise, the parish would have to take care of the widow, and he did not need such a burden.

We cross the threshold, but no one falls silent at the sight of us. Travelers are frequent visitors to pubs; these establishments are, in fact, not to a small extent intended for travelers. Often, the application for a license was justified by the fact that there were many travelers on the road, and there were not enough pubs in the district.

We know a lot about the public that gathered in the pub. Crimes are a true gift for a historian, because the minutes of court sessions recorded the names of all witnesses, indicating their occupation and place of residence. That is, when a crime was committed in a pub, there were some records that could be used to derive some statistics. For example, in our pub, most likely, there are about ten customers, of which five percent are women.

Women in pubs usually sat in groups. You show up alone - gossip will go; if you drink with other sedate married ladies - no one will say anything bad. In addition, dates were arranged in pubs. If a guy openly courted a girl, then going to a pub together was considered completely normal and decent.
However, "decent" is a relative concept here. Beer houses were still the lot of the poorest strata. Owners of some kind of wealth - yeomen, for example - drank at home, as if in olden days. The beer house was an outlet for ordinary people. Servants stayed here - for the same reason like lovers. Anthropologists call such places "the third home. Here you are not at work, where you need to please your boss or master, and not at home, where you need to please your parents or other half. Teenagers flocked here for the same motives. Medieval England was a paradise place, before the legal age limit for the sale of alcohol, it remained to live and live.

This does not mean that anyone seriously got drunk - except on Sundays. If we usually go on a break on Friday evening, then in the Middle Ages we walked on Sunday morning. Quite reasonable, if you think about it: after all, then you can relax the rest of the day. But this alignment led to an endless war between the pub and the church for Sunday parishioners. The pub was on top. One dissatisfied with this state of affairs parish priest in Staffordshire tried to somehow drive the poor out of the pub. As a result, he had to flee from the crowd, who "thrown their hats into the air, hooted and yelled for the priest to get away with his knapsack."

We sit down. The hostess pours us beer into an earthenware jug. Inside, it is usually stained with something black, but this is not dangerous, it’s just more convenient to underfill and cheat (just like in ancient Mesopotamia). A conversation ensues. The standard greeting for a stranger entering a pub is "What do you hear?" Before the advent of newspapers and television, travelers were the only source of information about what was happening in the world. Who is our king now? Are we at war with someone? Waiting for an invasion? In fact, pubs soon became breeding grounds for false rumors. In 1619, the whole of Kent was in a panic when the Spaniards allegedly took Dover Castle, and in 1603, the habitues of Leicester's pubs managed to find out about the death of Elizabeth I two days before the sad event.

So we drink and talk. There are about three pints per person—unless, of course, it's a Sunday. We also play games and place bets. And all this is noted in the bill, which must be paid before leaving. If we were local, we could drink on credit for weeks. The rest, too, do not have to pay with a coin, in-kind exchange is in use, almost anything will do as a payment for a pint of beer - chicken, for example. Convenient, but dubious from a law enforcement point of view: a traveler simply needs to steal a chicken somewhere along the way and exchange it for a drink at the first beer bar that turns up.

But the evening, as is typical for all evenings, ends, and when the locals go home, we can spend the night somewhere on a bench for a fee. And if not stingy, then in the same bed with the owner and his wife. Or we can take a hint from Shakespeare (his only scene where the action takes place in a pub and Mr. Sly is kicked out for non-payment at the beginning of The Taming of the Shrew) and take a nap right on the street at the doorstep.

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The Czech Republic is famous for its numerous establishments with delicious beer and inexpensive food. We will talk about restaurants, cafes and bars that stand out from the rest with their unique atmosphere and unusual history.

Medieval tavern "At the King of Brabant" (Krčma U krále Brabantského)

One of the oldest Prague taverns, opened in 1375, is shrouded in many secrets and legends.

Rumor has it that city alchemists, the executioner Mydlarzh, the brilliant Mozart, the great Yaroslav Gashek and countless charlatans of all stripes liked to drop in here. Such a diverse audience created an atmosphere of real freedom, which can be felt today. Visitors can enjoy traditional Czech cuisine and delicious beer. Well, the main "feature" of the tavern is a medieval show.

From Tuesday to Saturday from 19:00 to 22:00, the institution takes its guests back hundreds of years - before their eyes, under the old musical motifs, a duel of pirates takes place, charming dancers perform, and fakirs command fire.

The entourage of the Middle Ages complements the interior of the tavern: antique furniture, skulls on the ceiling, candlesticks on the tables - everything is done so that the visitor forgets what year it is.

It is impossible not to mention the staff of the tavern: for the duration of the show, they transform into a typical medieval rabble. At any request from a guest, the waitress can shout: “First, send my money!”, Well, or even easier - refuse to return the change. If the client still insists on a refund, she will bring them in a skull and hit them on the table with all her might. Such morals, there's nothing to be done.

Recommended to try: honey-baked pork ribs with spicy sauce

Address : Thunovská 198/15, PRAHA 1 - Malá Strana

The cost of the show: 195 crowns (8 euros)

Website : http://www.krcmabrabant.cz/

primeval restaurantPravek

To be in the Stone Age, it is not necessary to invent a time machine, just visit a restaurant in the center of Prague. Rock paintings, stone chairs, roughly knocked down wooden tables, skins of dead saber-toothed tigers and mammoth tusks on the walls - all this makes the interior of the establishment truly original. The actors of the show program together with the waiters will help you feel like a contemporary of the Flintstones. Together they portray real savages - hoot, snarl, walk with a ridiculous gait, beat drums and do much more. Let it be a surprise for guests.

To give just a small example: try to order from a waiter in a loincloth, who answers all questions with incoherent sounds “u”, “u”, “u-u-u-u”. You can safely forget about cutlery for the duration of the show - you have to eat with your hands. Stone Age, anyway.

Recommended to try: potato soup with mushrooms in bread (Bramboračka s houbami v rozpečeném chlebu).

Address: there are three restaurants in Prague under the Pravěk sign, but the primitive show takes place exclusively in the oldest of them at Sokolská 60, Praha 2

Cost and time of the show: from 18:00 to 23:00 on weekdays, from 11:30 to 23:30 on weekends.

Website : http://www.pravek.cz/

Old Bohemian restaurant "Monastic Tavern" (Klášterní šenk)

Usually Czechs are not very fond of restaurants with national cuisine, especially if the prices in them are above average - they can cook all the same food at home.

However, this place is always full of locals. Finding a free table without prior reservation is akin to real luck. The success of the institution is due to a number of factors, but the main one is the atmosphere of warmth, kindness and tranquility. This is because the restaurant is located on the territory of the existing Břevnov Monastery, the oldest in the Czech Republic. It was founded in the distant year 993 and has experienced many upheavals since then. During various wars, the monastery was completely destroyed several times, but was again restored by hard-working monks of the Benedictine order. The motto of the order: "Pray and work."

Benedictines of the Břevnov Monastery

Interestingly, immediately after the founding of the monastery, they began to brew beer in it. Břevnov brewery is the oldest in the Czech Republic and is famous for its brewing traditions. In the restaurant, you can see this for yourself by ordering one of the types of the Benedict monastery variety. Not only beer, but also the cuisine here is very good: everything is very tasty, starting from the bread that the monks themselves bake, and ending with the pork knee, without exaggeration - the best in the city.

Recommended to try: baked pork knee

Address : Marketska 1/28, Praha 6

Website : www.klasterisenkenk.cz

Beer pubThePUB

Heaven for all beer lovers. The concept of the establishment is simple, like everything ingenious: each table is equipped with a beer dispensing system with four taps. No more waiting for the waiter - pour and drink. Liters consumed are counted electronically and displayed on a touchscreen, which allows you to remotely order drinks and dishes.

The bar became so popular that it opened branches in many Czech cities and even other countries.

Another interesting thing is that information is collected via the Internet about the amount of beer drunk in a particular establishment at each particular table and is broadcast on a large screen. If you come in a friendly company, you can compete in the international "litreball" with "athletes" from Germany, Austria and Romania.

Recommended Try: Baked Spicy Chicken Wings with Homemade BBQ Sauce (PUB Wings)

Address : Veleslavinova 3, Prague 1

Website: http://www.thepub.cz/

Restaurant "Locomotive depot" (Vytopna)

An original institution that will completely delight children and adults. The duties of the waiters here do not include serving drinks, trains do it instead. Rails are connected to each table, along which the wagons with mugs and glasses are pulled by a locomotive. After the arrival of the train, visitors need to pick up the ordered drinks and put an empty container in their place.

The restaurant simultaneously employs 15 realistic models of locomotives from different eras. Particularly impressive is their power (each such baby is able to pull 12 mugs of beer) and speed (up to 20 km/h). The average cost of one model is about 800 euros.

Address: Václavske nám. 56 (palác Fénix), Prague 1

Website: http://praha.vytopna.cz

Coyotes Bar (Coyotes Praha)

A great place for lovers of nightlife, the main feature of which is the incendiary dances of beauties on the bar counter. Sexy barmaids not only dance famously to well-known hits, but also demonstrate mastery of fire, water and all other elements.

It's like in the famous movie "Coyote Ugly". The atmosphere of truly unbridled fun here can be eaten with spoons.

Address : Male namesti 2, Praha 1

Show Time: daily, every 30 minutes from 22:00

Website : http://www.coyotesprague.cz

Vegetarian restaurant "Legka hlava" (Lehká hlava)

Prague is a meat city. On every street, on every corner, you can smell the smell of boiled, fried, stewed or raw meat. Vegetarians have a hard time, but they also have an outlet. Cafe "Legkaya Golova" fully justifies its name. Stunning interior, melodious music, delicious food, crackling wood in the fireplace - everything you need for a sincere meeting or a cozy pastime alone with your thoughts and your favorite book. There is a really special energy here, which is difficult to describe, but you can feel it.

Address : Boršov 2/280, Praha 1 - Staré Město

Website : http://www.lehkahlava.cz

Cafe, bar and restaurantOBLACA

The restaurant, located in a recently renovated complex inside the Zizkov TV Tower, will take its visitors away from earthly problems to a height of 66 meters. At any time of the day, a gorgeous view of the beautiful Prague opens from here. The modern style of the restaurant is perfectly combined with the futuristic appearance of the tower itself, more like an alien rocket.

The sculptures of babies crawling on it, clearly not like earthly children, give the building a fantasy (the author of the work is the famous Czech artist David Cherny). Dinner here can be a great idea for a date or a friendly meeting. Either way, it will be remembered for a long time. Note that in the tower there is a hotel consisting of only one room, the cost of one night in which is 1000 euros.

Address : Tower Park Praha, Mahlerovy sady 1, Praha 3

Website: http://www.towerpark.cz/restaurace/

This is our list of the most unusual restaurants in Prague. What do you know?

In this article, I will talk about our experience of visiting the very hyped medieval restaurants of old Tallinn. We got this experience on two weekend trips to the capital of Estonia. The first took place in 2016 on the holidays of March 8, and the second in 2019 on the New Year holidays. During the New Year holidays, all the restaurants of Old Tallinn were packed to capacity, queues stood in the street all over the old town in the evening, the March 8 holiday is less popular, there are much fewer people.

On the Internet, opinions about restaurants in the Old City are divided in two. Some people believe that the prices there are too high and it’s not worth overpaying, while the second part of the city’s guests believe that eating there is just part of the fun, the main thing is the atmosphere of the establishments – medieval waiters’ outfits, interiors, show programs in some restaurants. That. if you are interested in a purely utilitarian problem of satisfying your hunger, then it is better to go to the Baltic Market or to the Kalamaja area for lunch, and if you want to feel the flavor of medieval Tallinn, then welcome to the restaurants of the Old Town.

All the institutions described in this article, except for Lido, are located in close proximity to the Town Hall Square, they are separated from each other by a distance of 50-100 meters. If you just look at the photographs of their facades posted in this article, identification will not be a problem. Under each last photo of the restaurant there is a link to the official website of the institution. All the mentioned restaurants, except Beer House, have a menu in Russian with prices on their website.

OLDE HANSA and DRAKON III have been shown more than once in the program "Eagle and Reshka" and in the high tourist season there is a live queue for both of these places and not only in them. Table reservations are highly recommended.

I will start with the DRAKON III restaurant, everyone can afford to visit this catering establishment and entertainment for city guests, everything is on a budget.

This institution is located in the Gothic building of the Town Hall, which is almost 600 years old. If you stand facing the town hall building, then the entrance to DRAGON III will be on the left. In fact, I would not call this place a restaurant, many people call it a medieval tavern and I think this name is closest in meaning to DRAKON III.

Probably many are wondering why this place is called in such a strange way? Everything is simple with this, if you take a closer look at the town hall building, you can easily find two ancient dragons on its facade, these are forged copper spillways. They were installed in the 17th century, about a hundred years after the installation of the weather vane in the shape of Old Toomas.

Wrought copper weirs in the form of dragon heads

And accordingly, the restaurant DRAKON III installed a third dragon on the facade of the town hall, this time in the form of a sign for the establishment.

Signboard of a medieval tavern in the town hall building

In the summer, you can sit right under this sign at the tables, and in winter, welcome to the darkness of the Middle Ages. The place is quite crowded, but very entertaining. The owners tried to create the atmosphere of a medieval tavern: the saleswomen are dressed in ancient dresses, the usual cutlery is not provided, there is no electric lighting, the hall is lit only by candles.

The interior of a medieval tavern.

It feels darker in the tavern than it turned out in the photographs. Of course, this is a tourist establishment, they don’t go there to eat, but to look, enjoy the color, food is secondary. The menu is very modest, only what could be prepared in the Middle Ages: several types of pies for 1€, elk soup 2€, beef ribs 9€. The ribs are served with a knife and two sticks, but there were no forks in the Middle Ages!

Beef rib from a medieval tavern.

Soup can be drunk over the edge, in ancient times everyone had their own spoon and always carried it with them, remember Brueghel's paintings, there you can find characters with a spoon behind the lapel of a hat. Any drink costs 2.5 €, so the medieval tavern is a very budget place, it is ideal to use it for a lunch snack in the center of Old Tallinn.

Pickles in DRAKON III are provided free of charge, provided that you yourself fish them with a special stick from a barrel, this is another attraction in a series of immersion in the Middle Ages.

Set lunch of the day 4.80€. Alcoholic drinks can be ordered separately.

Peppersack Restaurant - sword fighting

While we were choosing where to go to eat in Tallinn, we paid attention to two more establishments. This Peppersack restaurant, located next to the same Town Hall Square. Its facade is decorated with a bag of pepper. The main feature of Peppersack is sword fights every evening, we didn’t go there ourselves and didn’t see fights, but such an offer sounds very tempting. If we go to Tallinn again, we will probably look there.

Peppersack restaurant, white sack house

The official website of the Peppersack restaurant is just one page, scroll down and you will see everything, the anchors do not work. Reservations are recommended during the high tourist season.

Meals 5.50 - 35€.

Balthasar Restaurant - garlic restaurant

We also drew attention to Balthasar restaurant located in the building of the Town Hall Pharmacy. Firstly, the Town Hall Pharmacy is a very old building, secondly, the windows of the restaurant offer a wonderful view of the Town Hall Square, and thirdly, this is a garlic restaurant, they say they even serve ice cream with garlic sauce. Garlic, of course, is not for everyone, but I consider myself more of a fan of garlic than of its opponents. Fourthly, Baltazar Russov himself wrote his legendary Livonian Chronicles in this house.

Restaurant Balthasar, entrance under the arch

The official website of the Balthasar restaurant - table reservations are possible.

Meals from 11 to 23€.

I wrote about that in a separate article, I especially advise you to pay attention to the border crossing in Narva upon returning to your homeland, a preliminary appointment is required.

You may be interested in reading with links to specific hotels and apartments and photos. Find out the algorithm for finding cheap parking near the center. In the capital of Estonia, you can stay in a house with a 14th-century wall and a fireplace, or rent an apartment in the building where Dovlatov lived, and it won't be fantastically expensive. ( 1 ratings, average: 5,00 out of 5)

In the Pushkinskaya area, the Japanese bar Neko was launched by the S.I.D.R Group team, known for its Schrödinger's Cat bar. Yegor Stepanov is responsible for the cocktail list, Pavel Maletsky is responsible for the kitchen. The menu includes yellowfin tuna (650 rubles), scallop (520 rubles), hamachi (690 rubles), poke with salmon (520 rubles), udon noodles with seafood (390 rubles) and more than three dozen Japanese dishes. The cocktail menu turned out to be author's, with a bias towards Asia, and Ekaterina Korchinova was engaged in the interior. The design was made minimalistic, with large panoramic windows, marble and light wood.

"Love and Sweets"

Address: 66th kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road, Vegas Crocus City shopping center

Opening hours: 10:00–23:00

Average check: 700 rubles

Soloist of the group "Hands up!" Sergey Zhukov and his wife Regina Burd opened a family confectionery in the Vegas shopping center. They promise that all cupcakes, eclairs, cakes, cakes, pastries and sandwiches are made from natural products. In addition to the fact that you can go to the cafe to drink coffee with desserts, all products can be ordered in advance for a holiday or corporate party.

"Uzbek" in Domodedovo

Address: Domodedovo airport, Russian zone, second floor, sector D

Opening hours: around the clock

Average check: 1 000 rubles

Cafe "Uzbechka" opened at Domodedovo airport after reconstruction. The design of the renovated restaurant has completely changed, but the principle of operation remains the same: guests themselves choose and combine dishes on the distribution line. The menu includes traditional Uzbek cuisine: manti, pilaf, barbecue, lagman and fresh bread.

NEWS

Tour Rudy Carraro in Mitzva Bar and telegram bot

On February 20, bartender Rudy Carraro, a former bartender of the London Artesian, and today the chef of Italspirits, arrives at Mitzva Bar. For Moscow guests, Rudy will prepare four cocktails, 600 rubles each. In addition, Mitzva Bar launched the @MitzvaBot telegram bot, which can give advice and select the right cocktail for guests. Until the end of March, ordering a cocktail through the bot, you get a discount of 100 rubles.

Medieval feast in the "Barrel"

Bochka Restaurant launches a series of dinners stylized as medieval feasts. The first one will take place on February 23, the menu will include appetizers, desserts, wild boar, smoked beaver tail, bear ribs and, of course, wine and whiskey. The restaurant promises to light a fireplace, decorate the space with skins and arrange a musical evening on harps and flutes. In general, for fans of the "Game of Thrones" just right. The cost of dinner with wine is 5 thousand rubles.

Big breakfast at the Food Store

This weekend, the Food Store food court will host a big breakfast from the Eggs group, which brunches at Les coffee shop. All participants of the market prepared a special breakfast menu. For example, in Plov.com you can find fried eggs from two eggs and lamb kebab, in Durum-Durum - fried eggs, stewed lamb shoulder and corn porridge, Bang Bang will cook a pancake with grilled shrimp, and the Doubleby team will be responsible for coffee. ". All corners of the Food Store participate in the event, so it will not be difficult to choose a breakfast to your taste.

Photos: cover, 1 - Bar "Neko", 2 - "Love and sweets", 3 - "Uzbek"