Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(vul Vynnychenka 12; 10am-11pm)
The jumble of moth-eaten antique chairs and sofas,
book-lined walls and dusty parquet floors are no product of a restaurateur's imagination
- this place is real! Evoking prewar (and pre-tourism) Lviv, it would be a shame to sit
outside on busy vul Vynnychenka in summer, and in winter this is the perfect spot to curl
up with a book, order a warming cup of aromatic Lviv coffee and pretend it's
19-something.
Dzyga
CAFE
(
www.dzyga.com.ua
; vul Virmenska 35; 10am-midnight; )
This cafe-cum-art gallery in
the shadow of the Dominican Cathedral has a relaxed vibe. It's particularly popular with
bohemian, alternative types, but seems to attract pretty much everyone, really. The sum-
mertime outdoor seating is gathered around the city's Monument to the Smile. If it's full,
there are other attractive options for a nibble or a cuppa joe nearby on postcard-pretty vul
Virmenska.
Smachna Plitka
CAFE
(vul Kurbasa 3; 11am-11pm)
Head down the stairs behind an anonymous wooden door in
the facade of the Kurbasa Theatre to find a basement cafe that's everything you want a
central European coffeehouse to be - small cafe tables tucked furtively into corners,
hard-to-beat coffees and beers, and turtle-necked revolutionaries filling the air with
schemes. Hard to find, but one of Lviv's longest established cafes.
Lemberg
PUB
(vul Chaykovskoho 18; noon-10pm)
The 17 types of mostly Ukrainian beer, the huge bur-
lesque posters adorning the walls, the crude timber floor and smoky, rowdy, local-
rockstar-gone-doolally atmosphere make this an entertaining spot to retox, though the
service is nonchalant and the miserable cellar is a place to avoid.
Pid Synoyu Plyashkoyu
CAFE
(vul Ruska 4; 10am-10pm)
With its nostalgia for the Polish-Austrian past and its dark in-
terior, the tiny 'Under the Blue Bottle' cafe at the back of a courtyard has a cosy, secret-
