Ema


Very smart
Nestled next to the down at heel scruffy Masarykovo Railway Station, is the rather more fashionably scruffy EMA Espresso Bar. This less is more type place certainly seems to encourage the discerning hipster coffee drinker to hurry his or her way through their drinks and out of the door so their place can be taken by another thirsty hipster. The furniture is a higgledy-piggledy mixture of things that look like they were acquired at a primary school closing down sale. The furniture doesn't cater for groups or lovers but for the loan coffee drinker; the hipster and his/her Mac.
The first thing that strikes you about the place is just how small it is and how much use they make out of the space available. A fair proportion of the cafe is given over to the bar where the massed ranks of bearded baristas are ready to serve you as you walk in. Maybe 5,6,7 staff buzz behind the bar looking super important. They are a study of perpetual motion, always filtering coffee or pressing the aeropress. They almost give the impression that you are there for them rather than the other way around; that you are servicing their addiction, their need to grind, filter and press. 
The second thing I thought when I walked in was what is the collective noun for MacBooks? Because there was certainly a pretention of Macbooks on display in here; every other table was apple laden, with either a mac, a pad or a phone. 
The third thing is just how trendy the clientele are, this place puts the HIP in hipster, you get the feeling that if you don’t have the beard you don’t get the brew, although I’ve always been served no problem and I don’t have the necessary gauntlet tattoo and hirsute face. 
The coffee in EMA is always immaculately served, the little tray and jug look like a modern art instillation ready to win next year's Turner Prize. So if you are in the mood for a aesthetically pleasing brew and want to help out some poor, filteraholic baristas, then dodge the drunks at the station and head to EMA. 

If you enjoyed this review, and you would like a story to go with your coffee, please check out my short story blog here and my story inspired by hipster coffee here.

For the website of the cafe visit here

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