The “U Pinkasů” pub was the first Prague establishment to serve Pilsner Urquell on tap
The “U Pinkasů” pub, founded by Jakub Pinkas in 1843, was the first Prague pub to serve the bottom-fermented lager Pilsner Urquell on tap. It has remained one of the city’s most popular establishments throughout its more than 180 years of continuous operation.
The U Pinkasů pub and restaurant is located in the centre of Prague on Jungmann Square, in the neighbourhood of the Franciscan Monastery and the Church of Our Lady of the Snows. Its first owner was Jakub Pinkas (1805-1879), originally a tailor. In the spring of 1843, Jakub Pinkas asked Pilsen coachman Martin Salzmann, who sometimes stayed with him when he came to Prague with goods from Pilsen (later founder of the most famous Pilsner beer hall U Salzmannů), to bring him the new lager from Pilsen to taste. On April 8, 1843, Salzmann brought two buckets of the tasty lager from the new brewery in Pilsen for him to sample. Jakub Pinkas left the tailoring trade and established the now famous pub.
With the growing popularity of the bottom-fermented frothy lager, Pinkas expanded the rooms on the ground floor of the pub, and opened up the cool medieval cellar suitable for storing beer. And he introduced a new practice. At that time, beer was poured from big casks into smaller containers. But in Pinkas’ cellar, the beer wasn't poured, it was tapped. In other words, each glass of beer was drawn directly from the cask. This novelty, which quickly attracted more beer-lovers, was nonetheless an ordeal for the staff. No one has ever counted how many pints a waiter had to carry from the barrel cellar up the stairs to the pub inthe course of one shift. They say there were waiters who would carry as many as fifteen glasses at a time.
Pinkas was a strict innkeeper, but his regulars were his protégés. They included famous politicians, writers and journalists such as František Palacký and František Ladislav Rieger who had their own tables. And Pinkas was always happy to welcome young students from Prague schools to his pub. The old pipe, on which the first Pilsner was drafted, is still on display in the cellar of the famous pub.
