Hamish Champ: Smiling and smoking in the Czech Republic
13 October, 2008
"Waking up after a night out in Ceske Budjovice my lungs were wheezing like an old steam engine on its last legs, my hacking cough a fitting testament to the dozen or so fags-worth of smoke I must have inhaled during my time in a series of bars"
Three years ago I undertook my first ever brewery tour when along with members of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers I was shown round the Budweiser Budvar brewery in the Czech Republic.
Last week I was a guest of the nice people from Budvar for a second time and not much has changed about the place in the intervening years.
While times are tough for consumers everywhere the brewery, based in the town of Ceske Budjovice in Southern Bohemia, is holding its head up admirably. The beers it produces are certainly as tip-top as ever.
One other situation that hasn’t changed saddened me however. After my first visit I’d remarked in what was one of my earliest columns for The Publican that one didn't see many people smiling in the Czech Republic, not even in bars. I said it made me realise how much more hospitable I felt our pubs were, notwithstanding the odd wobble here and there.
Cheery faces weren’t exactly on widespread display on my return to the country last week either, a fact that even a local tour guide showing us round the beautiful medieval city of Ceske Krumlov acknowledged. With some irony he noted that one result of the city's current tourism boom was that you might strike lucky and find a restaurant waiter looking vaguely cheerful.
Who knows, maybe it’s a legacy of living for decades under the oppressive yoke of Soviet rule that causes many of the Czech population to bear an expression similar to that of the late Les Dawson when he used to talk about his mother-in-law.
That's a conundrum I'll probably never get to the bottom of. What I am sure of though is that after sitting in a series of smoky bars for several hours – the Republic has yet to ban smoking in its pubs – I realise and appreciate the difference a smoking ban has on my own ability to breathe clearly.
Waking up after a night out in Ceske Budjovice my non-smoking lungs were wheezing like an old steam engine on its last legs, my hacking cough a fitting testament to the dozen or so fags-worth of secondhand smoke I must have inhaled during my time in a number of hostelries.
As I attempted to clear my chest the morning after the night before I recalled an old cartoon featuring a man in a pub chatting to the barman. The customer is looking down at the floor rather wistfully. “I miss that old spittoon," he sighs. The barman, dutifully polishing a glass, replies: “I know. That’s why we removed it.”
Readers' comments
Really Hamish one evening in of second hand smoke and you sound like your poor little lungs are ready to give it up. Goggle Oct. 29th 2008 Newsweek article, "Can Britain be Britain without it;s Pubs" by William Underhill. The article sums up the situation in the UK and my question to you is what will you do when there are not enough pubs to publish the Publican. The lack of things to smile about is a Eastern European thing that the UK, Western Europe and the USA will soon embrace. The bank crisis is only the first cards to fall as we are led like sheep to the financial slaughter house.
The one thing about the smoking ban that I miss are the smokers who brought in an incredible amount of business for my small village pub. But I do not, at all, miss the smoky environment, I have to admit!
You are right that the Czechs are not the greatest smilers on the planet and that certain pub environments can be appallingly smoky here.Nor have I ever seen a spittoon on a pub floor here. HOWEVER.. The beer is fantastic, as you probably will acknowledge - almost exclusively lagers but there is a growing new trend to also experiment with Ales. One of these, for example, from Primator in Nachod, in North Bohemia is called English Pale Ale and is very tasty. It comes in 1/3 litre bottles - oddly enough the strength isn't marked - but I enjoy it at home when I'm doing some serious work and want to keep the brain sharp but feel like a little liquid bread [one name that Czechs use for beer]. Now a few more pluses to the general picture which you paint. First that pubs are smoke-free at lunch time so that effectively means that you can enjoy a pretty smoke-free zone most of the day and your neighbour won't be flicking his ash in your goulash.. The second is that believe-it-or not Czechs are smoking much less than they used to - but NOT drinking less beer. We are the largest per capita consumers of beer in the world, and proud of it. Third since the end of Communism, there has been a burgeoning of independent brewers with some absolutely marvellous and varied products. The above-mentioned Primator is one, with a wide variety of beers including some extremely strong ones. Either 24 degrees or 26 is their strongest - I have a 24 cooling right now - I don't remember which, and they are definitely not sweet in the barley-wine mode. They also make a German style Weissbeer, made from wheat. Also notable is Bernard, of Humpolec in S. Bohemia who make a wide variety also, including a yeasted beer unfiltered beers and the best non-alco beer for designated drivers. There are well over 100 breweries for a population of 12 million! Some are strictly mom-and-pop operations or solely brew-pubs and very fine some of them are! They tend to be clean well-lighted places with enough ventilation to deal with the smoke - and also let me add that many pubs now have non-smoking rooms which tend to be favoured by our extremely beautiful and friendly women. Speaking of socialising in pubs, Friday night is beer night. Virtually everybody meets up with their particular group of friends and sit at their regular table.One great plus for people in Communist times was that they could meet in the noise of the pub and be sure that no STB - Secret Police - microphones would be able to accurate record conversations. Friends meet each other over decades - one friend of mine who returned after forty years of exile found the same group of friends with whom he had been at university still meeting in the same pub when he came home. For anyone who is seriously interested in Czech beer or who is planning to visit here and would like to be informed here is some indispensable information: Evan Rail's Beer Culture - the Czech Beer Blog (Evan is also the author of "Good Beer Guide: Prague and the Czech Republic", published in England by CAMRA, and writes about beer and brewing in the Czech Republic and around Europe). www.praguemonitor.com/beer/ I should mention that ER is a long-term friend and former student of mine and he will be an adjunct expert advisor and when possible a guest and fellow imbiber at some stage during the "Beer Journeys" which I am currently researching and which will be launching in the Spring. These will be varied and will not only involve some excellent beer-drinking, sometimes in hidden-away locations, but may also, for example have a literary angle, as in tracking the life and adventures of Bohumil Hrabal - who was born in a brewery! - and even bathing in beer, while also supping some, in a delightful beer-spa in N.W. Bohemia. The main agenda however will be exploring the infinite variety of beers available and visiting the breweries where they are made. There's one that you can even sleep in!