This review is brought to you by the author of Maggie's Milkman and Extraordinary Rendition. For more details click here.
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| Reminds me of Cafe Grumpy in NYC |
Many years ago, my friends and I used to play a game called facial hair cricket (see below). This involved aimlessly
walking around Prague looking to score runs by spotting moustaches and beards
and looking to take wickets by seeing goatee beards. I was reminded of this game
while walking around Náplavka, the trendiest Farmer’s Market in the whole of
Prague. This would have been a haven for facial hair cricket lovers. Back then
it took a long time to play a full game; facial hair was few and far between in
the early 2000s, but at Naplavka there was every type of beard imaginable, from
the designer stubble to the Hollywoodian, from the well-trimmed goatee to the
lumberjack wild man look, it was the Lord’s of facial hair cricket.
If you are wondering why I am writing about a Farmer’s Market
on my Hipster coffee blog, well I think it qualifies for an entry. Let’s have a
look at the evidence, loads of beards, loads of tattoos, loads of very tight leggings,
okay I didn’t see a MacBook but there were a few iPads around and there was ethically
sourced, filter coffee on sale, making the market one big hipster café.
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| Perfect for Refreshment during a game of FHC. |
My feelings about Farmer’s Markets are made plain elsewhere
and Náplavka is the nadir. It is cringingly middle class. These markets should
be at the cutting edge of a culinary and ecological revolution. But if
revolution is all about middle class folk eating quinoa burgers, then let’s lay
down our weapons and head back to Tesco.
But there is a shining coffee star amongst this middle class morass; Brew Bar. There are plenty of other
coffee stalls at Náplavka but Brew Bar is the real deal. In Hipster style terms
these guys give Double B a run for their money, but in terms of coffee they are head and shoulders above the rest; they are coffee geeks and proud
of it. They don’t have a shop or a café elsewhere,
Náplavka may not be a café in the strictest sense of the
word, but it is one big hipster hangout and with Brew Bar in attendance, it is
a place to get your hipster coffee fix before enjoying a game or two of facial
hair cricket.
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. Also please consider buying one of my novels, details here.
For the website of the stall visit here and the market here. If you visit this cafe on my recommendation, please tell them why you came and if you enjoyed this blog please share it with your friends.
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Rules for Facial Hair Cricket.
In cricket the teams take it in turns to bat and bowl. They
toss a coin to decide who bats first. The
first batting side, let’s call them team A, tries to score as many runs as possible
while the bowling side, let’s call them team B, tries to take 10 wickets. (In
facial hair cricket the bowling side needs to take 5 wickets.) Then the teams
swap roles and team B (now batting) try to score more runs than team A did.
If you are new to cricket, think of it as points and lives. You
need to score as many points as you can and have 5 lives to do it in.
In facial hair cricket to score runs / points you need to
spot moustaches and beards
A moustache = 1 run
Designer stubble = 2 run
Healthy growth 3 runs
A big beard = 4 runs
A massive beard = 6 runs.
To take wickets / lose lives you need to spot goatee beards.
Whoever scores the most runs / points wins.
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