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The world in black and white

Vinohrady bar/restaurant finds it cool to be in the shade
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By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 7th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Scribbled accolades and paper money fit Black Cat, White Cat's worldy menu.
Between east and west, good and bad and black and white lies a vast expanse.
Černá kočka, Bílý kocour (Black Cat, White Tomcat) exists in this gray area, neither among the best nor worthy of outright dismissal. You may even feel compelled to like the place based on atmosphere alone. Not only does it wear the togs of a cool urban lounge with ease, but the staff also shares this confident familiarity. As I stepped down into the room for a third visit, the waitress from my first looked up, smiled and called my brand of beer to the bartender.
It’s easy to be caught up in the look and feel. But the food is similar to that of a good family diner in Des Moines — which is to say, modest dishes framed by extras hinting at things vaguely exotic, such as Jack Daniel’s sauce.
There are pluses, of course. A round of suitable goat cheese, baked and draped in a sauce of “forest fruit” is the sort of entry-level gourmet dish you find at more and more midrange Prague restaurants, and this one handles it well. A thin pesto garnish and a handful of broken walnuts finish the presentation. While the fruit puree comes off as somewhat nondescript, its soft sweetness allows both the mild cheese and the surprisingly potent garnish room to maneuver.
From the Menu
  • Baked goat cheese 95 Kč
  • Stuffed mushrooms 70 Kč
  • Rib tips 125 Kč
  • Spinach soup 60 Kč
  • Fish and chips 140 Kč
  • Burger 145 Kč
  • Grilled pork collar 150 Kč
  • Baguette 35 Kč
  • Staropramen 28 Kč
Bar items are also attractive. Several regulars swear by the wings, and there’s also a worldly range of fried anchovies, nachos, beef tartare and rib “fingers.” The bitter molasses flavor of concentrated Tennessee whiskey, the aforementioned Jack Daniel’s sauce, comes with the latter — small, meaty ribs drawing richness from a layer of fat and a dash of salt and pepper. Sparse seasoning allows the dense taste of beef to surge forward. Barbecue sauce the color of a desert sunset (or, if you’d prefer, a University of Texas football jersey) does nothing constructive. But the Jack Daniel’s, full of burnt sugars and smoke and wood condensed into something powerful, yanks the taste of meat down into a more primitive level, a place where one derives keen pleasure from messy finger food.
The very same sauce, on the other hand, refused to play nice with a cut of fatty, overcooked grilled pork. Only blackened onions piled on top stood out, sweet and naturally bitter although too greasy for comfort.
Černá kočka Bílý kocour

Vinohradská 62
Prague 3–Vinohrady
Tel. 222 519 773
Open daily 11 a.m.–3 a.m.

Food
Service
Atmosphere
Overall
The recommended accompaniment to the pork is “baguettes” which turn out to be two slices resembling garlic bread found in the frozen food section of U.S. supermarkets. Other letdowns include a disappointing take on fish and chips, memorable mostly for an offbeat texture similar to wet papier-mache in a fried coating. And the burger (disturbingly called a cat burger) paired dry, granular, overcooked meat with a weak bun and vegetables of suspicious quality — except for perfectly caramelized grilled onions (these guys know their onions) laden with the eccentric but oh-so-welcome flavor of sweet charcoal. The spinach soup hits the midlevel barrier and stops, content to wallow where flavors flatten out and textures view perfection from a distance. It’s good enough for everyday dining, but nothing worth texting your friends about.
Big champignon caps managed to shrug off every ingredient stuffed into them, other than browned sprinkles of “parmesan,” the final smoking moment under the broiler bringing out an otherwise nonexistent piquant bite. They sit on a bed of wilted greens laced thoroughly with garlic — a decorative field that proves far more attention-grabbing than what amounts to a mild commercial mushroom stuffed with timid cheese.
Not that anyone should shy away from ordering the mushrooms, or anything else on the menu. Černá Kočka, Bilý Koucour’s downers still beat similarly priced items served at many places in Prague. The kitchen may not hit black or white extremes, but there’s nothing wrong with a touch of gray.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (7/03/2007):

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