A covered-over stream that used to be a border, now the busiest bar street in the city — and priced like it.
Tkalčićeva is a street that was a river, and before that a war.
The border
The Medveščak stream ran down this valley between the two hills, and it was the boundary between Gradec, the free royal town on one side, and Kaptol, the bishop’s town on the other.
The two settlements spent centuries in conflict — genuine armed conflict, with raids, burnings and excommunications, most seriously in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The bridge over the stream was known as Krvavi most, the Bloody Bridge, and the name survives as a short street just off Tkalčićeva.
They were only united into a single city in 1850.
The stream powered mills and tanneries, became an open sewer, and was covered over in 1898. The road on top is Tkalčićeva.
What it is now
Several hundred metres of low nineteenth-century houses, no traffic, and a continuous run of bars, cafés and restaurants with terraces down both sides.
In the evening it is the busiest street in Zagreb. In summer it is full from six until well after midnight.
It is genuinely attractive — the scale is right, the buildings are pretty, and the whole thing is car-free.
The honest view
It is the most expensive street in the city and it is not the best.
Drinks cost noticeably more than two streets away. The food is largely aimed at people who will eat here once. Several places have menus in five languages and photographs on them, which is the universal signal.
That does not make it a tourist trap in the bad sense — Zagreb people drink here too, particularly the younger ones, and on a summer night the atmosphere is real. But you are paying a premium for the address.
Where locals go instead:
Opatovina, the parallel street behind Dolac, which has a run of good, cheaper places under the trees.
Radićeva, climbing up towards the Stone Gate, with smaller and more idiosyncratic bars.
Bogovićeva and Cvjetni trg in the lower town for the daytime coffee ritual — see špica.
Martićeva and Vlaška, east of the centre, which is where the craft beer and the newer places are.
What to drink
Coffee, at any hour, sitting down, for a long time. This is not optional in Zagreb.
Ožujsko and Karlovačko are the mass-market beers. Croatia has a real craft scene now and most decent bars will have something local on.
Rakija — fruit brandy. Šljivovica from plums, travarica with herbs, medica with honey. Served in small glasses and not sipped politely.
Croatian wine is very good and under-exported. Ask for Graševina from Slavonia if you want white, Plavac Mali from the coast if you want red.
