Want Coffee and a Cigarette After May 31? Check Out Eccentric Café

A Czech film producer is casting real-life smokers for a documentary that is to begin shooting “indefinitely” in Prague this summer

Expats.cz Staff Jason Pirodsky

Written by Expats.cz StaffJason Pirodsky Published on 26.05.2017 11:10:06 (updated on 26.05.2017) Reading time: 1 minute

The new issue of Týdeník Respekt profiles Czechs who oppose the country’s upcoming smoking ban—a complete ban of smoking in restaurants, cafés, and pubs—as an affront to basic human rights.

Among them is producer Jakub Horak who told the publication: “Not being able to smoke in restaurants is fine, but in the case of cafés and bars I disagree…coffee and cigarettes belong together, otherwise a piece of poetry slips away from life.”

In an effort to keep that poetic pairing of coffee and cigarette alive, Horak has found a loophole in the smoking law that will allow him to set up a café where smokers can still boost their caffeine charge with a nicotine buzz.

Reportedly opening in July at an undisclosed location near Národní třída, the Eccentric Café will be leased as a film location for Horak’s time lapse documentary about the life of smokers.

In order to light up, every visitor to his “smoking and tasting bar” and private club must sign a contract for an acting role as a smoker with Horak filling the role of producer.

A post on Horak’s Facebook page says, “We will shoot every day except Sunday from 6pm to 2am. Available props will be a wide choice of whiskey, brandy, cognac, cigarettes, and cigars.”

AGENCY PROPERTIES

The privilege of being typecast as a smoker in a boho Prague café will cost you, though: a monthly membership fee of 200 CZK is required.

The producer says that he’ll shoot for 30 years, a nod to the Czech documentary film maker Helena Třeštíková who spent decades filming her Prague subjects, perhaps?

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