Blues Bar Garch

The best of Olomouc’s suburban bars is looking a bit tattered these days but still has a good atmosphere and more bar-games than you knew existed; darts, air hockey, table football, billiards-with-no-pockets, and even sewing machine races, although the last might see you asked to leave.

There’s a decent fondue menu; either bread and croutons dipped into cheese or eight different flavours of spiced chicken fried in oil. Occasional live music too.

Garch is a rambling underground bar on the corner of Mozartova and Litovelská just outside the centre of Olomouc. Everyone knows it just as Garch, but the full name is Galimatiašův Archiv. In Czech to speak Galimatiaš is to speak rubbish, so I guess the name of the bar means something like “The Archive of Junk”.

A smaller room at the back has a table that looks like it was once part of a coolroom door, about twenty six-inch steel meat hooks, some fake trees and a functioning air-hockey table. The air hockey is 40Kc an hour- the staff will mark your drinks-ticket with your start and finish times. The table football works exactly the same way, but is calculated at 50Kc per hour.

Blues Bar Garch
Mozartova 761/3
Tel: 585 414 098

15 Minut Club

15 Minut Club is a student club run by students with a regular program of dance nights, concerts and events during the semester.

Set in a cavernous basement beside the Morava River down near the pink and green Orthodox church, the space can accommodate a lot of people and a lot of different events.

There’s a large room at the far end of the venue with a small stage where bands and DJs will perform. There’s a large space for dancing there but the ceiling is low so don’t jump too high!

The centre room is filled with booths for a place to chat and rest from the music. At the front entrance is the big bar. It’s normal in this club (as opposed to most places in Czech Republic where you’ll get table service) to order drinks from the bar.

You can find info about 15 Minut’s program of events on their website, www.15minut.net, but you can almost bet on there being something happening there every night except Sundays during the university semester.

15 minut club
Komenského 31
Tel: 777059150

Jazz Tibet Club

Jazz Tibet Club is a non-smoking venue that holds regular concerts ranging from jazz, blues and rock to reggae and funk. There are concerts most Thursday nights during the academic year. When there is no live performance they tend to play good music on the sound system.

The Jazz club is a long open hall with an arched ceiling and murals on the walls and the furniture is all wooden. The bar is under the mezzanine floor opposite the stage, but there’s always table service and the wait staff eventually find their way through even the thickest crowds.

If you’re seeing a concert there, you’ll get a numbered slip of paper at the door. It’s very important not to lose it. Your drinks will be marked on it by the waiters and the security staff will not allow you to leave if you cannot present it with the imprint of the club’s PAID stamp. It’s clearly explained at the bottom of the slip (in Czech) that if you lose it, they will calculate your drinks bill at 2000Kc. That’s enough for one main meal and 85 glasses of beer.

The Jazz Club is also a quite reasonable restaurant. It has a good menu; Turkey skewer is ? Kc and chicken with lemongrass is . The coffee is well made and there’s an extensive drinks list, as the owners of the Jazz Club also have a small wine store.

Tibet Jazz Club is open Monday through Saturday until midnight, but the kitchen closes at 10pm.

Jazz Tibet Club
Sokolská 48,
Tel: 585230399