Inside Alma, a former mid-century arthouse cinema in Prague, diners preface meals of grilled ox heart and black beer sauce-dressed carp with complex cocktails like the tequila-based Yarrow & Famous. Yarrow buds, their bitterness tamed by a salt fermentation, are steeped in a homemade pastis formula for a minimum of six months. Then, the liquid is married with pickled cherry water and tomato liqueur.
Alma is situated in a historic building about a 15-minute walk from Wenceslas Square where, in November 1989, demonstrations against Communism unfolded as part of the Velvet Revolution.
Like many of its European neighbours, what was then called Czechoslovakia hid behind the Iron Curtain for four decades. Gradually, civil unrest throughout the vast region, most notably exemplified in the fall of the Berlin Wall a week before the Prague protests, helped topple the brooding Communist regime.
The Cold War officially ended in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR, and suddenly, after more than 40 years of rations, seized land, travel restrictions and, in some cases, brutal violence, the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc opened, and the freedom that rushed in was at once liberating and daunting. There was, to put it mildly, a lot of catching up to do.
Cocktail culture is one of the many avenues to explore central and eastern Europe’s post-Soviet Union evolution. Pavel Sochor, Alma’s bar manager, worked in the UK, and when he returned to his native Czech Republic in 2017, cocktail pioneers like Hemingway Bar and Black Angel’s Bar were thriving in Prague. As other imaginative establishments began to open, he realised there was an opportunity to tap into his abundant travels and make his own impression on the city.
“I felt like I could, or should, push things more and do things differently,” he recalls. His partners were also eager to adopt a more elevated approach, and now innovative techniques and seasonal ingredients, as reflected in the Yarrow & Famous, are cornerstones of Alma’s beverage programme.
Inventive cocktails are a hallmark of the Berlin bars that get widespread attention in part because of Bar Convent Berlin each year. Unlike Berlin, which was only partially oppressed during the East Germany years, other cities in central and eastern Europe had to start from scratch. Now, passionate bartenders, including Sochor, are illuminating slow-to-build cocktail scenes in an often-overlooked swath of Europe. The not-for-profit Shift project spearheaded by Arina Nikolskaya, for example, does a stellar job of amplifying bar talents from underserved locations, including former Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Kyiv’s Barometer International Bar Show also brought great exposure to the region, but with Ukraine embroiled in war for over three years now, it’s inevitably faded away.
Ambitious stretch
To help fill that gap, David Brumberg, Tomas Ignatavicius and Greta Skamaročiūtė founded the Baltic Bar Show in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2024, attracting members of the industry and local consumers alike. It’s an ambitious stretch of Europe. Consider the Old Fashioned whipped up at Gimlet Nordic Cocktail Bar in Riga, Latvia, with chanterelle-infused bourbon and dill oil, or the libation-melding aquavit, yuzu sake, St-Germain and olive oil at Whisper Sister, the glamorous speakeasy-style bar in Tallinn, Estonia.
“There was quite a blind spot on the region,” says Skamaročiūtė, head bartender at the Nomads Cocktail Bar in Vilnius, where a mezcal drink brightened with timur berries, crème de cassis and a drop of vinegar are among the offerings. “The country has had to go through so many changes in a very short time and 34 years is not that much when thinking about the progress we’ve made in hospitality. We had to move away from our Soviet Union inheritance – look at our roots, see what was lost over time and create a whole new identity.”
This mission is simplified in Vilnius, where Skamaročiūtė likens the bartending community to a small village, a convivial feeling that will be on full display during the second edition of the Baltic Bar Show in September. Focusing on education spanning cocktails and social issues, this time around the event will also benefit from the expertise of Whisper Sister bartender Jiří Mali.
Poland has also raised its profile through the Better Bar Show, organised by Barschool.Pl, in Krakow. In between workshops and tastings, enthusiasts visit local bars such as TAG, helmed by couple Maciej Mazur and Alicja Bączyk-Mazur, whose playful, ever-changing menus are centred on such creations as Arugula Martinis and Mojitos that swap mint for rhubarb and eucalyptus distillate.
Most prominent of the region’s bar shows is the Mirror Hospitality Expo in Bratislava that invites bars from around the globe to experience Slovakia’s charm first hand. Bartender and author Stan Harcinik, global ambassador of Mirror Cocktail Bar at the Radisson Blu Carlton Hotel, believes part of Bratislava’s appeal is that it’s not a saturated cocktail hotspot such as London, New York or Mexico City.
“It’s not overcrowded with tourists and what you see is true to the culture and lifestyle, but people are not going to come here by themselves,” he admits, “so we need to bring them.”
That determination has spawned Mirror Hospitality Expo, a melange of seminars and guest shifts that unfurl at the lush, moody Mirror Bar. Once visiting bartenders are off the clock, they can try Mirror Bar’s cocktails served in fantastical glassware. A riff on the vodka Cosmopolitan, the Elton John, for instance, is packed with lacto-fermented red fruits, apple and citrus. “The bar scene here is progressive and growing day to day,” says Harcinik. “We needed to do something to shine a spotlight on our bar, our city and our region in the best possible way.”
Peaches & Cream Bar in Zagreb, Croatia, a cosy spot that has a knack for fusing ingredients like whisky, pineapple and tahini, is owned by Mišel Posavac and Dominik Bečvardi, who share Harcinik’s collaborative mindset. They launched Copy/ Taste in 2024, bringing together an array of bars to highlight the region, and this year have expanded with bartenders visiting from other parts of the world. The first one was particularly eye-opening, introducing the public to bars from the former Yugoslavia, including Kokotov Rep from Podgorica, Montenegro; Casa Bar from Skopje, Macedonia; and Okosh Bokosh in Banja Luka, Bosnia. Silk & Fizz, then a pop-up in Ljubljana, Slovenia, was also there. Since then, founders Jan Križaj and Gal Pilko have found a permanent home in the middle of the city to turn out the likes of chipotle distillate in the rotovap and pair it with tequila, strawberry and corn.
Belgrade, Serbia, a Balkan cocktail capital, is where Russian bartenders Anton Shirobokov and Dmitry Demenev relocated during the war, and they couldn’t be happier with their choice, joining a throng of well-regarded hangouts like Belgrade Cocktail Club, Josephine and Riddle Bar. Null Social Lab only opened in 2024, but already it is leaving an imprint on the city with drinks that weave in Serbian flavours, such as quince rakija and green walnut liqueur.
“Belgrade is home for me and my team. This is a different level of bartending from the high-volume cocktails in Russia,” points out Shirobokov. “When we visited all the cocktail bars here, everyone was helpful and gave us contacts for wholesalers and ice makers.”
Forging relationships
Key to the region’s growth is forging relationships with fellow bartenders while also showing locals new ways to drink. When Zoltán Nagy opened Boutiq’ Bar in 2008, Budapest denizens were largely drinking cocktails influenced by Schumann’s bar in Munich, but Nagy had another plan. “Every place had menus that were books of extensive classics, and the staff were rigid. If you wanted a Strawberry Caipirinha they didn’t make it,” he remembers. “I wanted my bar to be a bit like London with fun, fresh ingredients. We wanted people to understand we’d be happy to make any classics, but that there’s also something beyond what they think of cocktails.”
This vision now permeates central and eastern Europe. In Sofia, Bulgaria, locals relish a Balkan take on the Old Fashioned combining Metaxa, apricot brandy and sugar beet caramel, and in Romania, Bucharest newcomer Teoria revamps favourites like the Gimlet with white chocolate, green olive and bergamot.
Pivotal to the region’s burgeoning development as a cocktail powerhouse are brothers Sofokli and Evis Çali. They opened Nouvelle Vague in 2012 to move the needle on drinks, yes, but also to inject Tirana with a much-needed jolt of positivity. Communist rule in Albania was one of the harshest, and its effects were long lasting. “We were blessed to be born in such a nice geographic location between Italy and Greece, but were not able to harvest the goods given to us. Until 2007 or 2008, it was a disaster,” explains Sofokli. “All of a sudden, it’s like you’re released from jail. You don’t know how to walk.”
Nouvelle Vague, with its vivid interior and libations that call for Albanian ingredients like blackberry raki, is a way to reclaim traditions and showcase a long-muffled inherent love of hospitality in a new, peaceful vision of Tirana. “From a romantic point of view, if you believe in karma,” adds Sofokli, “it’s payback for what Albanians endured.”
