retiredmartin

March 2025. Iaşi. Romania.

The really notable thing about the craft bars in Eastern Europe is that they’re in the most expensive places in town. I guess with their strong pints (0.4 litres) at £4.50 a pop they’re as aspirational as Beermoth or the Old Shoe in England.

Kaze is bang central, opposite the Metropolitan Cathedral, alongside Kopt bakery and the mysterious Scotty’s pizza,

a place that cruelly opened 5 years after Duncan’s visit, denying him a pre-emptive tick in an imaginary Romanian Beer Guide.

I guarantee you the Pubmeister has been in a thousand places like Kaze, 366 of them in Copenhagen,

but that doesn’t make it any less good.

I’m no expert on Romanian craft; heck, I can’t even say “Multumesc” with a comma below at the bar, but that’s a very Locale looking board.

CAMRA won’t let me score crafty keg, but the murk from Maktoob (the grapefruit one) and Tomesti Hill (the murky brown one) were barely carbonated and served at perfect temperature (11.2, fact fans).

I’ve described the Eastern European countries we’ve visited these last two years as “effective and efficient, rather than effusive“, and I won’t claim we struck up a conversation with the barmen about GBG ticks or Placebo deep cuts* or the weather.

But I can’t fault their beers, or their loos, or their music taste.

And that was after “Me and Bobby McGee” in the bar before. Janis rules here.

*it’s an indie band, Paul