A garden of Hansen restaurant (source: hansen-restaurant.cz)

I got a lovely letter last week:

Dear Kasparek,

I’m an expat in Brno. I was wondering if you could recommend me some restaurants for a romantic evening. The kind of food actually doesn’t matter that much. A wide variety of choice is appreciated.

Thank you for your consideration. Keep up the good work!

Hello! K——

If you sometimes ask your friends a similiar questions, you may find handy my answer:

My girlfriend loves Greek restaurant Pontos (22 Křížkovského st.), but someone might mind the sharp light there. On the other hand, it is a budget-friendly place. I think Hansen (corner of Husova st. and Komenského sq.) may also be a good choice – they even have live jazz in the garden these days!

Later, some more tips came to my mind:

• U Kastelána (51a Kotlářská st.) has a beautiful interior and it offers top-quality Czech meals with some French and Italian influences. Prices are above average.
• La Bouchée (33 Údolní st.) is located in a quite romantic cellar and meals like “snail caviar served with toast, butter and salt” may be good aphrodisiacs, I guess.
• Rialto (125 Veveří st.) is among the most expensive restaurants in town, but they try really hard to offer exclusive meals. The menu is frequently updated with fresh and seasonal ingredients.
• Momo Sushi (13 Solniční st.) is one of the best sushi bars in the town (there was a boom of these venues last year).

What is your favorite place to go when you want to spend a lovely evening with your spouse or lover? Let us know in the comments.

Luckily, living on a budget doesn’t necessarily mean eating unhealthy defrozen plastic food served in most of the cheap restaurants. I recently discovered (with a little help from my friends Lia and Fandor) the AVIA café restaurant, offering great food for excellent prices, between CZK70-150 (€2.70-5.80) for a meal.

Cannelloni with béchamel and beef

The owners of Avia describe the place as a “puristic restaurant”, which works on several levels:

• The menu has only about 10 items, but there is a new menu every week. (See the current menu.)
• All fods served in Avia are simple jewels of mediterranean cuisine – pasta, fishes, beef and salads – with few ingredients but strong flavours.
• The restaurant is located in a basement of a functionalistic church built in the 1930s – this makes it a good place to have dinner after visiting the villa Tugendhat.
• There’s no music played in the restaurant. (I think jazz would be great, but I still prefer silence to the radio stations played in many other restaurants.)
• Avia is a non-smoking restaurant. But you guessed that already.

I like the interior, but one of my friends thinks it

I have eaten there for three or four times and I was always satisfied. Meals are simple and tasty, dishes are warm (a detail that is often skipped in three times more expensive restaurants), waiters and waitresses are quick and smiling and draught beer from Černá hora is one of my personal favorites.

I am just sad that all these things are still not a standard in the Czech republic.

Keep on rocking, Avia!

More photos

I am the worst food photographer ever, so check out these galleries and machine-translated articles:

• Photos & review by the most famous czech foodblogger, Martin Kuciel
• Photos & review by a Brno’s rising foodblogger Michal Sänger

Map

Avia is located at Botanická st., close to Art cinema, two blocks from Faculty of Arts.

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It is surprising, but even the French culture needs to be advertised. That is the purpose of the annual festival called Bonjour Brno (aka the French days or Francouzské dny), which is organised by the French Alliance and takes place between March 19 and April 10.

This year an important place is given to the French region Alsace, with an
exhibition of photographies (Printings of Alsace), typical dances, cinema
(Muetter film) and gastronomy (Alsace food specialities prepared by an
Alsatian chief and a tasting of Alsatian’s wines).

Elsa Montes (Chargée du Marketing et de la communication)

Some of the events make sense only for those who speak French or Czech, but Elsa Montes was so kind and made a list of those events where language does not really matter.

Concerts

Herbe folle

Thursday, March 19, 8.00 PM – Alterna Club

Pick of Brno Now – this group has so French sound that it makes the Cock au vin feel like a German food!

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Rearz

Wednesday, March 24, 8.00 PM – Alterna Club

Iota and Tribeqa

Thursday, March 25, 8.00 PM – Fleda Club

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Masaladosa

Wednesday, April 7, 8.00 PM – Alterna Club

Joakim

Friday, April 10, 9.00 PM – Fleda Club

Dances

Alsatian dances

Saturday, March 21, 6.00 PM – Umeleckoprumyslove Museum

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Celtic danses

Monday, April 6, 6.00 PM – Umeleckoprumyslove Museum

Exhibitions

Alsace

from March 19 to April 30 – French Alliance

Henri Noubel

from March 10 to May 30 – Palác šlechtičen

Pick of Brno Now – an interesting collection of old scrapbooks and notepads.

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Gastronomy

Week of the taste

from April 6 to April 12 – Restaurant La Bouchée

Pick of Brno Now – you have an unique chance to taste the best of the French cuisine right in Brno!

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Opera

Juliette

Friday, March 27, 7.00 PM – Janackovo theatre

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Petanque

Sunday, April 5, at 11.00 AM – Lužánky park

Pick of Brno Now – playing petanque on a Sunday afternoon is one of the best ways to say hello to spring (and to the French culture). What is more: the tournament will be followed by a pastis tasting!

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Other events

If you are OK with Czech or French, browse the complete programme to find other interesting evens, like movies.

Where to buy the tickets

Tickets to most of these events can be bought right at the venues or in the hall of the Dům pánů z Lipé palace.

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Background

The French Alliance of Brno organizes the Bonjour Brno festival since 1995.

The main objective of this non-profit Czech association is the broadcasting of the culture and the French language in Brno and in South Moravia.

The festival, which takes place under the patronage of the French Embassy in Czech Republic and the city of Brno, occupies a growing place in the cultural life of Brno and South of Moravia.

Every year, Bonjour Brno aims is to reach the widest public possible, without limitation of age, interests and education. In 2008, the festival gathered during a month 5 000 persons around 26 events which took place in 11 different places.

Source: Elsa Montes, Alliance française Brno

You don’t have to travel to Madrid to taste some of the great spanish snacks (or antipasta) called “tapas”. Ristorante Rialto offers a special Tapas menu from March 12th, 6 PM, until March 15th.

The menu has 15 items, inspired by spanish, greek and even japanese cuisine. I consider these to be the most atractive:

• Warm goat cheese on a potato waffle with pesto and tomato chutney (CZK 160, € 5.80)
• Gambas Ajillo – spicy prawns (CZK 250, € 9)
• Tuna sashimi with orange-mustard dip and fresh mint (CZK 280, € 10.10)

Visit the homepage of Ristorante Rialto for further details.

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