First Beer Guide to the Centre of Košice

In summer, Košice hosts many sporting events and attracts many tourists, locals and visitors to this eastern metropolis, who want to cool off with a cold beer in the city centre during the heatwave. To our surprise, there are more than 25 pubs in the city centre offering a wide range of domestic and foreign beers. Our résumé showed that acknowledged Czech beer brands predominate. Beer houses have been already established recently in Košice that offer new Slovak beer brands and traditional beers from local Košice breweries. They offer, for example, lavender beer, wheat beer, special dark beers, and beer tastings consisting of five to six beers at a time. We have prepared a unique BEER GUIDE in order to help foreign and domestic tourists to be informed better by the beer offerings and discover special beer brands linked to the region of Eastern Slovakia.

We begin our beer guide with an introduction of the iconic KEMBRIDŽ pub on Tomášikova Street in Košice. The name of this pub is CAMBRIDGE in English, because even today, students from the nearby electrical engineering school and the Technical University of Košice still go there for a glass of beer. This iconic pub has seen the socialist era, and tourists can experience the nostalgic atmosphere of times gone by here. Pensioners, artists and intellectuals have been meeting there for more than 50 years. If beer lovers want to go back in time, they can have a beer tapped at the window in Kembridž, sit on simple benches and taste the eastern Slovak beer brand Šariš. From the KEMBRIDŽ pub, the road leads directly to the main building of the Technical University of Košice. If tourists direct their steps towards the Merkur shopping centre, they will find THE FACE CLUB Pub nearby, at 28 Boženy Nemcovej Street. In this Šariš brewery brand pub, tourists are welcomed by the inscription ‘Srdcom východniar’ (The easterner with a fervent heart) on the walls of the pub. In addition to light and dark Šariš 10°, the pub also offers fresh Šariš 12° from a tank at reasonable prices. According to the pub owners, it tastes as if it had been tapped by the brewer himself. This beer does not come into contact with atmospheric oxygen and remains saturated with natural CO2. There is also a smoking area and a Slovak menu to accompany the beer. Sports broadcasts can be watched on a large screen. From this branded pub, tourists can walk to the CORVUS BREWERY HOUSE, at 17 Komenského Street.This brewery offers special beers with funny names like the 15° IPA called Lucky Bastard. After drinking this beer, the visitor will not get muzzy and he can taste the dark lager 13° Black Friday. You can also enjoy the dark strawberry beer Porter 14° produced by Lusatian East Germany brewery from 1895. There is also Nine Stout 18° offered there. By drinking 11° Tečka beer /translated into English as dot/, visitors can “put a dot” to a visit of this brewery and move from Komenský Street to KULTURFABRIK so called TABAČKA at 2 Gorkého Street. It is famous for its iconic courtyard, which is a meeting point for various visitors throughout the summer season. The range of craft beers is complemented by street food from the “Taste and Share” team and the rich cultural programme for which Tabačka is famous. If a tourist is looking for a good beer, a tasty burger and a dose of good music, Tabačka has it all in one place. In addition to the gold-standard Pilsner beer. Tabačka taps craft beers from local breweries Herrenwald near Košice, Hostinec Brewery, Berhet and Squark. ‘Taste and Share’ team brings a varied daily menu and an evening street food menu that includes Asian Bao Buns and Mexican Quesadillas in addition to burgers. No one will be bored at Tabačka, which hosts weekend parties until the early hours of the morning, concerts by contemporary bands and it brings a fresh dose of electronic music from young DJs in our “Stredávka” format every Wednesday.
From Gorkého Street, you can walk to the beginning of Hlavná Street, specifically to Hlavná 115, where you will find the Event Bar & Disco Restaurant LAMPÁREŇ PUB. They are proud to serve a special dark beer called Černá Barbora 13 from the Czech brewery Staropramen. This caramel-flavoured beer won the CEREVISIA SPECIALIST title in 2018 – the best dark beer special in the Czech Republic. The nearby RED NOSE PUB at Zbrojníčná 2 has an interesting philosophy. It has eliminated beers from multinational breweries and focuses on high-quality beers without chemicals and sugar from craft, small and medium-sized breweries, offering beers of its own recipe, such as the dark beer Black Panther. Twenty types of beer are tapped from 26 taps, including Tchýne, Černá hora, Černovar, Primátor, beers with amusing names from the Czech brewery Kojetín, and the honey special Bakalář – all brands that cannot be found in other pubs in the city centre. Every tourist who is a beer drinker must taste the Czech light lager Poutník (English: ‘the Pilgrim’). Beer lovers will find other Staropramen beers opposite the Urban shopping centre, at Hlavná 104 in the STAROMESTSKÁ PIVÁREŇ. In addition to Staropramen 10° and 12°, Smíchov 10°, unfiltered Nefilter 12° and 12° with an extra portion of hops are also on tap here. The pub has a wide range of fruit beers, from raspberry and strawberry to coconut beer. A little further down from this pub, you can enjoy Irish-style specialities. Guinness beer, steaks, pasta, and specialities at IRISH PUB DIESEL at Hlavná 92. The beer selection includes Budějovický Budvar and Punk IPA draught beer from the famous Brewdog brewery. There is LA CAFÉ PORTOFINO in a close neighbourhood of the IRISH PUB at Hlavná 82. This facility has a capacity of almost one hundred seats, the live coverage of some sport events can be watched on T.V. inside or outside. There is seating for almost fifty guests to enjoy Bernard 11° Czech beer on tap. If tourists want to try another draught of Czech Pilsner beer, they can simply cross the street to Hlavná 85 and visit PIVÁREŇ CENTRAL. This beer hall also offers other Czech beer brands, Gambrinus and Radegast, and non-alcoholic Birell beer for drivers and women. The luxurious CROWNHOUSE pub at Hlavná 73 is one of the few pubs to offer the world-famous original Slovak beer brand that survived socialism – the legendary Zlatý Bažant. Along with quality food, beer lovers can also enjoy Czech beer classics such as Krušovice, Czech ten Březňák, Slovak beer Corgoň and Austrian wheat beer Edelweiss Hefetrüb. . If tourists walk down Hlavná street, they will find themselves in front of the Levoča House at 65 Hlavná street. There is the HOSTINEC BREWERY which offers its own craft beers there and regularly modifies their production. It has its own brands – Hostinecká 12° and Hostinský Radler beers. These products are made without filtration, preservatives or pasteurisation. You can taste six types of beer in quantities of 6 x 0.25 litres for 7 euros. Tourists can book a beer tour and see the entire beer production process in the basement of the building. The tour costs around €6 and must be booked in advance. Just two doors down, at Hlavná 63, is the legendary KAVIAREŇ SLÁVIA. This establishment is for those who do not want to enjoy beer in a pub, but in the pleasant surroundings of a renovated Art Nouveau building with a beautiful façade from the beginning of the last century, surrounded by paintings, with indoor and outdoor seating overlooking the Košice National Theatre. The café serves Pilsner 12° and Milio 63 non-alcoholic craft beer. The café cooks meals from local and fresh ingredients and can boast seventh place in the Gurmán Award 2017, 2018 and 2019 rankings of premium restaurants. If tourists want to enjoy a beer in a national cultural monument, they can head to Hlavná 49, to the newly opened CONTESSA restaurant and café with large windows which command the view of the theatre. Contessa is located in a 14th-century town house. That house was reconstructed in the Baroque-Classicist style. Several stone entrance portals, stone windows and vents have been preserved in the house. They serve Pilsner beer there, and there is a good selection of non-alcoholic beers such as draught Birell non-alcoholic and bottled non-alcoholic Birell pomelo grapefruit and Stella Artois.
This year, a new beer house called MEDVEĎ opened its doors at Hlavná 54. It offers unpasteurised light and dark top-fermented beer, semi-dark beer, special editions such as IPL 16 lager and Milk Stout 17 dark unpasteurised beer. Tourists may be interested in the €5 tasting menu, which includes 5 different beers x 0.1 litres of the customer’s choice. Right next to this establishment, at Hlavná 54, is THE BEER HOUSE. This beer house offers Czech Litovel beer and Maestro beer. Down the road from this brasserie, on Hlavná 42, newly renovated MÁRAI BISTRO RESTAURANT & BAR awaits its guests, on the site of the former legendary Carpano café. This modern and welcoming restaurant and bar offer not only its famous Pilsner beers on tap, but also bottled specialties – such as the world award-winning Kaltenecker Dark Lager 13° and, for those who prefer fruitier flavours, the Belgian cherry beer Kasteel Rouge/. In addition to the good atmosphere, you can now also watch live coverage of the biggest sporting events on T.V. on our terrace. To mark the occasion, we Márai Bistro preparing a special offer in which its guests can enjoy their favourite drinks along with a beer at a discounted package price, in addition to burgers and other street food.
Not far from St. Elizabeth’s Cathedral, at Hlavná 9/12, beer lovers will find PIVOTÉKA BARRIQUE. There you can taste a wide range of unpasteurised beer specialities from larger and smaller family and craft breweries. The wonderful Blue Bell house is also located in this part of Hlavná Street. It is designed in a typical London vintage & new style. The menu includes, for example, BlueBell 12° lager. It is located in the courtyard and can be accessed from Hlavná Street 22 via the underpass or the entrance at Bočná 6.
If tourists cross the Hlavná street to the other side they will get to KOZLOVNA Hlavná 5 – a branded beer hall of the Czech brand Velkopopovický Kozel. Lovers of this Czech beer will find light and dark Velkopopovický Kozel 11° beer there, as well as Pilsner, Ratar and Birell beers. The beer hall also offers a ‘brewer’s choice’ – that modifies regularly. We will end our tour of the beer halls on Hlavna Street with a presentation of the brand beer hall of the Czech brewery Plzeňský Prazdroj called PILSNER URQUELL PUB. Tourists will find the pub on the 2nd floor of the Aupark shopping centre at Námestie osloboditeľov 1. It offers three types of draught tank: Pilsner Urquell 12°, dark Šariš and dark Master 18°, mixed beer and Pilsner Radler. If you want to watch football or hockey championships and other sports broadcasts, on T.V. that pub is the very place for that purpose.. Not far from Aupark, towards Steel Arena on Fejova Street 1, is the typical Slovak pub and tavern STARÁ SÝPKA. They are the only ones in the city centre to offer Gambrinus tank beer, draught Pilsner at better prices than in Aupark,such as Master and Birell beers. The advantage of this pub is its garden surrounded by greenery and fresh air, which tourists will not find in any pub on Hlavná Street, as well as typical Slovak and European cuisine at reasonable prices. When beer lovers walk from Fejova Street to Štúrova Street 32, they will discover an underpass to the K2 Pub. This pub has almost the cheapest small Pilsner and Gambrinus beer in the city centre. A small beer costs between €1.30 and €1.80, and the pub offers fresh food, including soup, as part of a daily menu for around €9 from Monday to Friday.
Now we will introduce our readers the pubs on streets and squares parallel to Hlavná Street. At Moyzesova 36, you will find GUINNESS KARAOKE MUSIC PUB, where they serve Guinness. The drink menu also includes Gambrinus, Pilsner, Birell pomelo/grapefruit, Korma (with mead), Master tmavý 18° and Voľba sládkov 0.4 l. You will carry away a memory of a beer experience, the one that would be worth mentioning. So, do you have the courage to take the microphone? Or would you prefer Secret Garden with live music, goulash and barbecue?
Not far away, on Dominikánske námestie, right across from the Dominican Church, PIVOVAR GOLEM welcomes visitors. Golem is one of the oldest breweries in Košice, established after 1989. It is also one of the oldest small breweries in Slovakia, brewing beer since 2002. The daily menu includes Golem 11.5° light lager and 13° dark lager. Golem also brews a third beer seasonally, whether it is the popular IPL SHEMESH, Viennese GESHEM, AVIV or BOHUMIL. Tourists like to order utopenci (pickled sausages), pickled Camembert cheese or the popular fried Olomouc cheese which go together with their beer.
If you walk from Dominikánske námestie square through the underpass towards Hlavná ulica street and then along Mlynská ulica street to Kováčska ulica 19, you will find the CAMELOT beer hall. The facility is famous for its managing director, who won one of the top places at the World Beer Tapping Championships. Tourists can enjoy tank Pilsner, draught Birell and dark, semi-dark and golden Master beer. On the parallel street, at 23 Hrnčiarska Street, tourists can discover the PUB u KOHÚTA. This beer hall offers draught Šariš 10°, dark Master 18, Birell Pomelo Grapefruit, draught tank Pilsner Urquell and Pilsner Urquell hladinka. ‘Hladinka’ represents the traditional style of draught beer. It is a lager served with a thick layer of creamy foam. Beer drinkers will appreciate the spacious green garden in summer, where they can taste specialities such as roast pork knuckle or roast ribs. From Hrnčiarska Street, via Zvonárska Street, beer connoisseurs can reach Čajkovského Street 4, where the DOBRÉ ČASY – GOOD TIME BREWERY pub is located. The garden of this brewery offers a direct view of the Orthodox Synagogue, and the brewery has 50 taps for 26 types of draught beer. This is probably the largest number of taps in one place in the city centre, and the brewery has hosted around 800 guests at once. There are Pilsner-type beers, wheat beers, various types of lagers, IPA and APA beers, Radler 10 and 12, honey beer for women – simply everything a beer lover could desire. For €6, you can also order a beer tasting of 6 x 0.1 litres.
We will end our BEER GUIDE on a cheerful note by introducing the STANIČNÝ PIVOVAR beer hall on the top floor of the Main Railway Station in Košice. The beers here are named after the main station – STANIČNÁ 10°, after the stationmaster – PREDNOSTA 12°, and after the depot – the dark beer DEPO. Even the legendary Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal is honoured here with the beer HRABALŮV LEŽÁK 12°, and Pilsner beer is also available. For women, there is a beer lemonade with 10° beer. So go ahead and discover the beer houses and beer gems of Košice and its surroundings!

Author: Daniela Capcarová ©