Unfortunately another Kafka haunt, Café Arco (Dlážděná 6, Praha 1), is faring less well, and after decades of neglect appears to be suffering a final humiliation as an Interior Ministry canteen. It is closed to regular punters, but you can still poke your head around the door for a glimpse of retired policemen slurping down plates of goulash. A fate only the tortured writer himself could have imagined.
Also well worth a visit are the Grand Café Orient in the cubist House of the Black Madonna (Ovocný trh 19, Praha 1), the stunning art nouveau Café Obecní Dům (Náměstí Republiky 5, Praha 1) the luxuriant, though not the original Café Savoy across the river from Slavia (Vítězná 5, Praha 5), and the Lucerna Café (Vodičkova 36 , Praha 1), located in a pre-war arcade built by Havel's grandfather.
Most of Prague's old cafés have at least three things in common. First, many also serve decent, sometimes excellent food. Second, as long as you order a coffee or two, you will be allowed to idle at your leisure without feeling under pressure to pay up and leave. And finally, a word of warning: the air will almost certainly be tinged a delicate shade of nicotine blue. For a non-smoking, free-wi-fi, honey-nut macchiato type of café experience, go to Starbucks instead.
Rob Cameron is the BBC's Prague correspondent.
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