Say you are tired of the comme il faut, standard cafes and restaurants in the Old Town open air mall, that you want a break from standard Irish bars, out-of-place French cuisine, whipped cream coming from a tube or fancily served kebabs, while that loud music coming from all other terraces has been, well, enough. Or maybe you just want something different. While definitely not of a unique concept, Bernschutz comes with a good selection of teas (my favourites are a Marybong FTGFOP for special occasions, an Earl Grey for breakfast, a Russian Samovar during the afternoon and - sometimes - a Jasmine pearl fitză). I personally found their teas to be of a better quality than those at competitor Demmers; visiting a tea estate in Sri Lanka and tasting many teas in the Subcontinent might have made me picky though. Furthermore, Bernschutz comes with two fine places where one can have a cuppa joined by various delicacies such as Italian nougat with chocolate chips and peanuts, cookies and a quite good home made carrot cake not so frequently met in Bucharest. On the down side, I hate... no, I totally despise those Barbie Girl cups they serve tea in: dramatically oversized, looking more like soup bowls, they are decorated with floral patterns that are simply overdone if not all the way grotesque. I believe using traditional tea pots and regular cups would be a more appreciated, down-on-earth solution.
Other than that, they have two locations which could remind one of Beauty and the Beast, not in terms of service or looks, but definitely of environment. First, there is the serene place set in a beautiful period property complete with narrow (but equally lovely) 3 table terrace on Eremia Grigorescu Street near the fine Grădina Icoanei and Lahovary Square; they could have been (a lot) more careful with setting that wallpaper in though. If you get there, take the time to explore the streets around, with fine 19th and early 20th century houses, as well as with the Școala Centrală or Dărvari Convent. The second location is set in the middle of all buzz, fizz and tap tap, on Smârdan Street in the Old Town; they also have a few tables outside there, but, unless you go early, it is plain noisy. Better sit on those tall chairs inside and watch the hip-hop, țop-țop self-entitled ‘smart’, otherwise plain madding crowd outside.
The General Eremia Grigorescu Street location - GPS - N44 26.039 E26 06.08
Address: 5 General Eremia Grigorescu (between Lahovary Square and Grădina Icoanei), http://bernschutz.com/
The Smârdan Street (Old Town) location N44 25.049 E26 06.00
Address: 30 Smârdan (near the crossing of Smârdan and Șelari streets), http://bernschutz.com/
