Great Coffee in Prague

Prague is one of those cities in the world that has a huge tourist industry. In certain parts of the city the streets are lined with suveniry (souvenier shops). It takes about 5 minutes to learn to ignore them. Then there are the restaurants. You can find any style, flavor, gimicky or cultural food one could desire. Pricing ranges from 25 Czech Crown ($1.25) Hot dogs that are nothing like you have ever seen in the United States, they are fantastic, to ungodly expensive French cuisine that can be found in a part of old town that looks like Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. Prada, DG, Louis Vuiton and the like all have stores here and parked along the streets here are Bentleys, Porches, Ferraris and Bugattis.

Then there's the coffee. All of the sit down restaurants serve coffee. Usually,the menus offer esspresso or cappucino. Occasionally, you will find Ameriky (American) on the list. Don't order it. It's the local version of what they think American coffee should taste like and it comes out grainy and watery. In this case I think Starbucks is far superior and Starbucks makes me gag. Now if you are into coffee Then esspresso or cappucino is definitely the way to go. There are presses and steamers everywhere.

So what draws me to a particular coffee house? It's usually the aroma. Good coffee smells good but great coffee can be smelled for several blocks and all I need to do is follow my nose. This is how I ended up in the Grand Orient Cafe. The Grand sits atop the Balck Madonna Cubist Museum. The building is rather young for Prague having been built in 1909. The Grand originally opened in 1912 and operated into the early 1920s when it closed and then was reopened in 2000. The Grand is a full service restaurant but I went there for the coffee and dessert.

Eileen, Jordan and Isabella joined me for my first visit. Eileen and I had Cappucino Isabella had cocoa and as a side we spilt vanilla ice cream with caramel and whipped cream. Really good cappucino is bitter without biting. Add a little sugar and it transforms into a smooth yet rich dessert. Then there's the ice cream. Vanilla with fresh caramel made right there and topped with whipped cream. The whipped cream is not sweet which for Isabella came as a little bit of a surprise.

The coffee was so good that I had to go back. This time my extra daughter from Israel, Tamar, joined us. She flew in from Tel Aviv to visit with us for a few days. Tamar is my coffe drinking buddy. She is pickier than I am when it comes to coffee. This time we had cappucino, cocoa, steamed milk with honey and rum, an apple strudel and cocolada (chocolate) fondue with fruit. The cost of all of tis was 440 Czeck crowns about $22.00. The Grand just keeps getting better and better.

If you are ever in Prague make sure this stop is near the top of your list of palces to go.