Before there was Café V lese on Krymská Street, there was Café Shakespeare. The men who founded the café had stumbled upon the steep street early one morning after a pub crawl, and reportedly felt like they were in Montmartre. That’s when they founded the now legendary establishment. In 2010, they started focusing on opening their next bookstore and ended up selling the café to me. Set designer Iva Němcová came up with a retro forest wallpaper; and because we had a very tight budget, we only bought colourful 80's chairs from local bazaars. Franta Skála lent us a wood Catholic crucifix. Franta Skála Jr. hammered away to make some birdhouses instead of small lamps. And in the back lounge, we started by putting on a cultural production. A year later, the well-respected leader of the Czech anarchist movement, Jakub Polák, made an appearance at a debate and wanted to go take a look at the cellar for a bit. He closely examined the cellar for two hours before coming up with plans right there on the spot to remodel the dusty spaces and create an underground concert venue.
Radek Motlík is in charge of Café V lese’s performance line-ups and programmes. And in addition to VOSTO5 Theatre Company’s talk show “Train Compartment in the Forest,” a concert takes place here almost every day. We organise the spring event Korzo Krymská with neighbouring businesses.
www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/oct/25/exploring-pragues-outer-neighbourhoods?page=with%3Aimg-2