It’s slightly strange that, when we ask for a drink, we call it an “order”—usually it’s more like a request, or even a plea. And when a really good bartender is working behind the stick, it’s not always clear who’s in charge in the first place.
I met Klára Valuchová when she started working at Pivovarský Klub, one of Prague’s first great multi-tap bars, back in 2008. I was a regular there and had recently published my guide to Czech beer for CAMRA, and Klára was new to both the bar and the world of good beer. At first she was one of those employees who quietly brings you your drink, no questions asked. But as time went on, Klára started giving me advice, more and more confidently, about what I should try, or what she thought was particularly good that day. Eventually it got to the point that, when I’d order a weird beer from an oddball, new-to-me brewery, she’d simply ixnay my request.
“Not for you,” she’d say, shaking her head.
She was, of course, completely right: great bartenders remember their customers’ tastes, and Klára knows those as well as the beer. She might not have started out with the sum total of the world’s beer knowledge, but she got up to speed fast, based on real-world experience. Over the years I’d find her missing from behind the bar at Pivovarský Klub one week, only to show up a few days later with pictures from another amazing beer trip, standing in front of breweries or sampling pints in Belgium, the U.K., Denmark, Iceland, or the U.S.
I wasn’t the only one who was impressed by her work. When the Czech beer magazine Pivo, Bier & Ale gave out its initial award for the best beer server in the country, Klára won. She also won the next year, and the next, and again for several years in a row. There’s a picture of her accepting one of those awards next to Czech brewing legend Josef Tolar, the longstanding brewmaster at Budweiser Budvar, now retired. In the photo it looks like Klára is saying something typically funny into the mic; like one of her regular customers, Tolar is listening with a grin. She has since appeared as a beer expert in both mainstream Czech newspapers and in the Czech edition of Playboy.
After 10 years, Klára moved on from Pivovarský Klub. I didn’t know where she was heading next when she left, but when I popped into a newish beer bar while researching a travel article a month or so later, I was relieved to see her face behind the counter. After about a year there, she left to spend a month in California, before returning to take up residence at Dno Pytle at the start of this year, working there until all our bars were closed in March.
I haven’t been to Dno Pytle in ages, since getting there means a trek across town for me. But that’s okay. When things get back to normal, I’ll be one of Dno Pytle’s first customers, and Klára will once again tell me what I should order.
Words by Evan Rail