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La Bodeguita is Now Bohemia, Cuban Is Now Czech?

Alex P SmartShanghai 2020-08-18


Photos by Brandon McGhee


La Bodeguita del Medio, the franchise version of Hemingway's musty mancave, has rebranded itself (the first floor, anyway) into Bohemia, a Czech brew pub with Pilsner Urquell on tap. That might seem like a handbrake turn of a rebrand, except the group behind La Bodeguita is Czech. It was Czech all along! One pork knuckle and two separate glasses (I'll explain) of Pilsner, please.


***


Expensive mojitos and prepackaged Latin good-time-vibes failed to take off on Hengshan Lu (surprise), so GastroGroup, the Czech company behind it, fell back on Granny Tereza's home cooking and famous Czech lager on tap. As of a couple days ago, the ground floor murals of Havana have been replaced with the Charles Bridge and the main gates of the Pilsner brewery in Plzen. Inexplicable palm plants remain, and they haven't gotten around to fixing the second floor yet. The urinals are still in the room marked "caballeros."



The rebranding feels predictably square-peg, round-circle. But what's the behind the bar? Actual side-pull beer taps! That's Czech as fuck! The taps are gilded like they were delivered in velvet-lined coffers.


Bohemia exists to sell Pilsner, aka Czech water, on tap. Sweet, prickly, golden, inch-of-foamy-head lager on tap. Asahi (which bought Pilsner from ABinBev boo hiss in 2017) deserves a Roman triumph and a lapdance for their cold chain, because it has arrived in Shanghai in excellent condition. When it's available. They were fresh out of stock on a Thursday night at 7pm. Sort it out, guys.


 

At 55rmb for .5L draft, it's cheap. For some reason, though, they charge 125rmb for 1l. When we asked them how that math adds up, they said it's because they have special imported Pilsner Urquell branded 1 liter glassware. If I'm paying 15rmb extra for a glass I expect to keep it.


Beef Goulash, 108rmb


The menu replaces internationalized South American staples with internationalized Czech staples: goulash, fried cheese, chunks of meat and potatoes. For the uninitiated, Czech cuisine ("cuisine") has two goals: pair with beer, and sit in your gut like a warm brick. It succeeds. The pork knuckle is cooked to such gooey perfection you could spread it on bread. It's still expensive, but at 168rmb it's cheaper than anywhere else in town. Notably absent is Czech favorite svíčková, sirloin steak with double cream. Sakra.


Pork Knuckle


Anyway, food's good. It is also significantly cheaper than before. Plus, the Pilsner is excellent, when it's not nonsensically priced. Nazdar.






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