The Golden Tiger (U zlatého tygra)
Many different names and insignia were applied to this building throughout its rich history; only during the course of its remodeling in the Baroque style at the end of the 18th century did its owner have installed on the façade the stone relief of a tiger, illustrating the house's new and permanent name - The Golden Tiger. By the 1820s, the building housed a coffeehouse renowned in literary circles, where the leading figures of the Czech National Revival debated long hours over their newspapers. Now, though, for a great many decades the "Tiger" has depended far less on its coffee than its exceptional Pilsner Urquell beer.
Of the connoisseurs of the frothing golden pints poured from the "Tiger's" taps, the most famous was certainly the writer Bohumil Hrabal, though the beer itself was far from the only reason he frequented this historic Prague locale.
"The pub for me is not simply too loud a solitude, not simply the place where beer is drunk, but where the beer sets the tongue in motion, into creation; the pub is where language grows and new argots and phrases come into being", Hrabal wrote.
Bohumil Hrabal
In 1994, U zlatého tygra played host to the American president Bill Clinton, at the invitation of the then Czech president Václav Havel. The two statesmen joined Bohumil Hrabal and other members of his circle for a glass of beer after the duties of the state visit.
Address: Husova 17, Praha 1, Old Town
