The doghnuts are gone, but the stunning mosaics remain

There once was a café in Prague where you could buy a platter of day-old doughnuts and chuck them at your fellow diners – and they would throw them right back at you, of course.

You could order absinthe and the brusque waiter would bring you the emerald brew in a cheap communist-era glass, along with a spoon, a pack of sugar, and a packet of matches. Then he would show you how to pour the sugar onto the spoon, douse it with absinthe and set it aflame.

You could hang your coat on the self-same coat stands as Max Brod and Franz Kafka once did, and you could listen to Dixieland jazz bands play the same melodies they’d listened to in the gay twenties.

In the restaurant, you could order wholesome Czech meals for reasonable prices and upstairs in the hostel you could rent a room or just a bed for some 35 Euro.

Of course we all knew it couldn‘t last. That sooner or later the weathered architectural gem on the corner of Zlatnická and Na Poříčí streets would start taking itself seriously again. And those of us who will miss the slightly dog-eared charm of the place can take some comfort from the fact that the new hotel administrator, Czech tour operator Special Tours s.r.o., with the help of Metrostav, have done the Imperial up in style.

Under the watchful eye of the Prague history authorities, they have spared no expense to restore the unbelievable majolica mosaics in the famous cafe, and to salvage the upper stories, laid waste by decades of communist
ownership, to their former poshness.

In every detail, playful opulence treads a fine line withgood taste and comfort.

Elegantly cozy rooms

Upstairs, the rooms’ original, huge, oak-paneled, two-winged doors open onto a labyrinth of quiet hallways. Marble is ever-present: in the majestic staircase which
winds up from the old lobby, on the floors of the landings – even encasing the bathrooms and elevators.

Thanks to the flair of interior designers of the Archina Atelier, which was also responsible for the overall concept of the hotel, the standard rooms, although small by modern standards, transcend the characterless luxury of many of the town’s five-star hotels and remain delightfully in tune with the lighthearted style of the hotel. They are, in a word, cozy.

Subtle shades of gold and ochre prevail: in the lush carpets, specially designed for the hotel, in the bedcovers turned down over plush duvets (crowned in turn with fluffy his and hers bathrobes), and in the drapes that veil the large, sound-insulated windows that open out onto the busy street.

The otherwise muted effect is laced with splashes of gold in the gilded lamps and mirrors, designed to match the geometric style of the rest of the building.

Former guests will be glad to hear that all of the rooms now have their own bathrooms, which has not been the case until now. In fact, Special Tours had to wage a tough battle with the historical authorities and explain to them that, with bathrooms in the hallways, the Imperial could never achieve world-class standards – or pay for itself.

All of the rooms also have complimentary internet connections, large, flat-screened television monitors with paid-for cable programming, safes, mini-bars, and heated floors and mirrors in the fully equipped bathrooms.

The larger Executive rooms have comfortable couches and armchairs, grouped around gilded tables, and unique “geometric style” writing desks – all custom designed for the hotel.

The hotel also has six suites, all overlooking the corner of Zlatnická and Na Poříčí streets.

In addition to 24-hour room service, business and secretarial services, turn-down service, underground parking, and limousine services, there are the fullyequipped fitness facilities in the basement, free to all guests, complete with whirlpool, sauna, and steam room.

Tea at the Café Imperial

On street level reposes the unforgettable – and unchanged – Café Imperial. Adorned with floor to ceiling reliefs made of individually sculpted majolica tiles, its décor is Babylonian ziggurat crossed with Art Nouveau over-the-topness.

In the dark ages of communist inelegance, the Czechoslovak Trade Unions, which had nationalized the hotel, talked of tearing down these gaudy symbols of bourgeois extravagance, or at least covering them with cement stucco.

Fortunately, they were never able to get their financial act together sufficiently to realize their proletarian aims.

Now, with the help of Rako Lasselsberger, the Rakovník-based ceramic stove maker who made the original tiles in 1914, the new administrators have restored the café to its original radiance. Under the guidance of art historian Vojtěch Pařík, restorers removed thick layers of tar deposited by decades of cigarette smokers and recast large chunks of missing sculpture – for a stunning effect.

The tradition of doughnut-throwing is, alas, a thing of the past.

Based on a passage in Czech author Zdeněk Jirotka’s novel Saturnin, people are divided into three classes: those who order a plateful of doughnuts and eat them, those who contemplate chucking them at the other guests, and those who actually do it. The ritual provided a lively change of pace for customers since the café reopened its doors in 2000. Until now.

Still, in deference to this past custom, the café serves a doughnut free with every cup of coffee.

The Imperial’s low prices are also a thing of the past. Although the present administrator had promised to keep the restaurant affordable for Prague residents, the prices on the menu have jumped by two grades at least.

“Certainly, the prices before were lower – with corresponding service standards,” Imperial marketing director Blanka Nováková told Lifestyles. “But our prices are quite reasonable compared to other five-star hotels in the area.”

To be sure, the cooking of chef Zdeněk Pohlreich, formerly of the Renaissance and Alcron hotels, is worth the extra expense.

In addition to dining in the café, guests can order a banquet for 30 in the adjoining Topaz Salon. With the original vaguely oriental tile motif and walnut paneling, it is an ideal space for a small reception or afternoon tea.

Larger events can be arranged in the small and previously unused courtyard, where Metrostav added a completely new conference hall with glass-domed ceiling and seating for 75.

Quirky, storied history

Considering its previous history, today the Imperial can thank its lucky stars. It has not only survived, it’s once again flourishing.

In 1913, Jan Kolář, the owner of the Hotel Paříž and Emil Sommerschuh, the director of the Lichtenstein Ceramics factory in Rakovník, built the-then super-modern hotel adorned with the timeless materials “in order to give future generations an unfading work of art that is not at the mercy of time.”

The building was designed in the geometric modern style by architect Jaroslav Benedikt. The extravagant ceramic decoration based on oriental and Egyptian motif was designed by Jan Beneš and carried out by the Sommerschuh’s ceramics factory. Several statues to be found throughout the building are by the Czech sculptor Josef Drahoňovský.

To finance the project, Kolář had to sell the Paříž. But from the day it opened its doors in 1914 and throughout the heady inter-war years of the First Republic, the Imperial, and especially the café, was a popular Prague hangout. But when Nazi soldiers started patronizing it during World War II, its days of glory came to an end.

In the great nationalization of 1948, the Imperial became the property of the Czechoslovak Trade Unions, which used it to house its own functionaries, but never thought to invest money into its maintenance, which was why it was shut down in 1988, near the state of collapse.

Throughout the 1990’s, due to continued ownership disputes, the hotel stayed closed. Finally, in 2000 it reopened as a youth hostel and the café quickly regained its pre-war popularity.

At the end of 2005, the owner of the building, a branch of the Czech Trade Unions, came to an agreement with Special Tours to carry out the urgently needed renovations. Lead architects Ivo Nahálka and Petr Kajer of Archina Atelier, together with the experts at Metrostav, discovered they had a beautiful wreck on their hands. The biggest problem was the ceilings.

“They were in such a bad state that the entire building was at the point of collapse,” the hotel’s Nováková said.

Ordinarily, such a structure would be gutted and a new building would be built up behind the original façade. But this was out of the question, due to the UNESCO-listed Imperial‘s historical value.

Instead, the builders invented a new technology which involved binding the old ceilings to new ones built above them. The worst was the ceiling above the café, which was covered with priceless mosaics. In some spots, the floor above it was only a few centimeters thick and a single misstep could have caused irreparable damage.

Such complications made other architectural posers, such as replacing the worm-eaten roof, building underground garages, and fitting those bathrooms in every room, look like a walk in the park.

Ultimately, the reconstruction took one and a half years, and cost 500 million Czech crowns. But the legendary hotel’s tenure as a run-down, but beloved, mid-priced hostel is over, and it has resumed its rightful place among the town‘s most beautiful hotels. Gonna miss those prices, though – and the doughnut fights.