Recap: Czech Street Festival

Saturday, Oct. 6, marked the 14th year of New York City’s Czech Street Festival, a cultural fair thrown by the Czech consulate on the stretch of East 73rd Street that houses Bohemian National Hall and its restaurant Hospoda. We were on hand to experience the festivities, which included tons of live music, authentic Czech food, and a kid’s tent with marionettes. Attendees were an irreverent mix of Czech expats and both the bespectacled hipsters and livelier octogenarians that make up the ever-changing Upper East Side neighborhood.

Czech specialties like fried sauerkraut, boiled potatoes with dill, potato pancakes, and three different kinds of pierogies filled the trays that lined the food tent. There was also pork aplenty, in the form of braised shoulder, buttery goulash, and traditional blood kishka sausage. To wash down such heavy fare, revelers headed inside Bohemian National Hall to the fourth-floor ballroom, wherein they were met with more live music and a full-service bar doling out pints of light and dark beer from Staropramen, the Czech Republic's second-largest brewery.

With the crowds, food, and atmosphere all making for a solid party, we’ll toast to next year’s crystal anniversary.

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