From Zen Palate to Lehka Hlava

Bringing Vegetarian Food to Prague

By Felicia Tan

(image from restaurace-maitrea.cz)

“You’re crazy,” Martin Dobeš heard when he told people he and his friend Vaclav Stanislav planned to open a non-smoking, vegetarian restaurant in Prague. “It’s never going to work.” In a city where cigarette smoke lingers in restaurants and pork rules supreme, the criticism and laughter rolled in.

As a strict vegetarian for five years, Martin often found only fried cheese, or even fish, in “meatless” sections of menus. The vegetarian restaurants that existed in Prague five or ten years ago were often more specialized or health-oriented. Martin and Vaclav wanted their own restaurant to be built upon an open concept that accepted all people and all styles of food. In fact, Martin guesses now, from what he can tell of his patrons, the majority of them aren’t vegetarian.

“We don’t want to force anybody,” Martin tells me several times. If people try the food and like it, he hopes a door begins to open in their minds. “How is it possible I never tried this before?” he hopes they might say. “I thought it wouldn’t taste good, but it does.”

And maybe, just maybe, they will start to explore other meatless options. Martin strongly believes that eating less meat is beneficial for the body and state of mind—that people will harbor less anxiety in their daily lives. His hope, then, is to encourage the concept of vegetarianism, not through public speaking or insistent promoting, but purely through the taste of the restaurant’s food.

Nonetheless, even Martin’s friends scoffed at the idea of barring smoking at first. You’re killing yourself, they warned. But Martin points to his experience stopping for only a few minutes at a pub on the way home, and coming out covered in smoke. That wasn’t how he wanted to go home to his wife and two children—and when Lehka Hlava, or Clear Head, opened in October 2005, others agreed. Even people who smoked gave the non-smoking environment a thumbs-up. The previous existence of vegetarian restaurants in Prague had suggested this new restaurant would fare decently, but this level of success was quite unexpected—Lehka Hlava’s popularity now oftentimes necessitates reservations for dinner. At present, Martin devotes most of his time to a second venture, Maitrea, which opened earlier this year.

Currently co-running two restaurants, Martin, 35, is a long way from where he started. Fresh out of the University of Economics in Prague, he took a two-month trip through Asia, a graduation present to himself. On that trip, Martin spent a month at a Thai monastery, learning to meditate with Buddhist monks.

“For a month?” I repeat incredulously.

“At the beginning, I was planning to stay there only a week or two,” Martin concedes. “It was quite intensive for a beginner. Many things changed in my head and my attitude.”

Martin returned home to work at Bank Austria Creditanstalt, all the while thinking about what he wanted to really do with his life. However, it wasn’t until he met Vaclav, already the owner of the restaurant Klub Architektu, at a meditation gathering that a new opportunity presented itself. Subsequent gatherings took Martin all over the world, and it was during one such gathering, over dinner at Zen Palate in New York, that the idea of opening a vegetarian restaurant was born. The vegetarian concept had always seemed better in other parts of the world, Martin mused. They should really do something about it in the Czech Republic.

“People don’t have this opportunity to travel and experience the food. They don’t know what they are missing,” he explains. “That was the impulse.”

And an impulse it was. Vaclav called the whole thing at first just an idea between friends—nothing too serious. But when Martin traveled for spiritual retreats—through countries such as Greece, Egypt, Morocco, and India—he drew ideas from vegetarian dishes and interesting combinations of tastes he encountered. He imagined the restaurant offering a fusion of tastes from around the world.

Then, back in Prague in 2005, Martin and Vaclav tried to visit a tea house—Dobra Cajovna, an old favorite—when they found it closed and learned it was available for rent. Going directly to the owner, they seized the opportunity to start their restaurant. Nine months later, Lehka Hlava opened in that little house on the shortest street in Prague, under the newly-minted company they had named Sattva, s.r.o.

Sattva. The word, from Sanskrit, describes one of the three energies from which the world is created. There is no one-word English translation, but sattva encompasses cleanliness, healthiness, joy, inner peace, purity—everything Martin and Vaclav want to represent in their business. Their cooks use non-spiced, pure ingredients, as well as organic food whenever feasible. The menus reflect the owners’ travels, although exotic food must be adapted into a version Czechs will accept—Martin mentions one instance where he tried Indian food so spicy he thought his tongue would fall off. They also take excruciating care in planning the ambience of each restaurant so it exudes calmness. In Maitrea, peach-toned walls create a soothing, earthy feel which is complemented by real plants and the sound of water flowing over the fountain.

They spend hours meeting with each potential worker, making sure he or she will work in harmony with the existing staff. Sometimes, they close the restaurant and take the workers on a trip to nature, forging bonds that they bring back to work. The staff at Lehka Hlava has been together for four years, but Maitrea is only five months old, and Martin’s main responsibility now entails managing his new staff’s relationships there.

He tells me it will take many more months to achieve the right rapport, and it’s easy to see how important it is to Martin to do everything, and not just the food, the right way. For two years after Lehka Hlava opened, Martin even worked his consulting job with Deloitte simultaneously in order to support his family, just so that he would not have to push too much, too fast, for the restaurant to make money. It was two years filled with exhaustion and limited sleeping hours, two years of not having enough time to spend with his wife and kids.

So, despite many offers to open a second restaurant, Martin wasn’t really tempted until he crossed paths with Antonín Koláček, a former businessman. In 2006, Koláček founded Maitrea, a house of personal development, and not long after, encouraged by their similar attitudes and values, offered Martin and Vaclav the opportunity to run the associated vegetarian restaurant.

“They know very well that the strength is in cooperation, not in competition,” Koláček said in an email, echoing Martin’s own sentiments.

Martin works exclusively at the restaurants now—Maitrea opened May 13, and it’s there we are chatting today. As I savor my chickpea soup—it’s deliciously thick, and Martin would be glad to know I’m wondering about the interesting mix of ingredients while I sip—he tells me it’s a good time to open a vegetarian restaurant. Czech people are eating in restaurants more, and the concept of vegetarianism is gaining ground. Ten or fifteen years ago, Martin would have been afraid to open a vegetarian restaurant, but a few years ago, he started to feel that such a restaurant could really be successful.

Casually, Martin waves at a woman who has just been seated. She is Lucie Rubesová, his former colleague from Bank Austria Creditanstalt. Ten years have passed, and she still works there, although the bank has undergone some name changes. She learned of Maitrea through a friend without knowing of Martin’s involvement, and eats there almost every day, enjoying the atmosphere, excellent food, and the feeling that there is some connection between the people who eat in the restaurant.

“Now we are meeting in a different context,” Martin says, looking out over the tables on this floor. “Even though she is not vegetarian, she appreciates what we do here.

“It’s always the best compliment for me.”