WHAT IS ST MARTIN’S DAY AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
Easy. St Martin’s Day falls on the 11th of November and it celebrates St Martin of Tours, one of the first „non-Martyr saints“, a soldier-turned-Bishop who lived in the 4th Century. There are many legends surrounding his life, but only a few are relevant for us specifically.
Namely, it’s St Martin goose, St Martin rolls, St Martin wines, and St Martin “arriving on a white horse”.
Traditionally, St Martin is said to be arriving on a white horse, meaning that November 11 tends to coincide with the first snowfall of the winter season. While due to a little thing called climate change, this hasn’t been the case very much lately, St Martin remains the day on which you feast on comfort food before the Nativity Fast hits on November 28: there’s a few legends involving geese and St Martin, but the fact is St Martin goose with cabbage or sauerkraut and dumplings is an absolute St Martin’s Day classic, along with sweet rolls filled with either nuts or poppies.
The one thing you should know is that St Martin’s goose feast has literally exploded as a food event in recent years, and it has become THE busiest weekend for many great restaurants. So if you haven’t made a reservation for your goose by now, you should drop everything and start making calls right now. St Martin’s weekend is pure madness, in a good way.
St Martin’s wines
There is another that happens on St Marin’s Day, and it’s the release of St Martin’s wines, a recent phenomenon meant to popularise local wines and help with the cash flow of some winemakers. You mights see a lot of ads about this. It’s basically young wines - the first wines of this vintage.
Now, we will go all out and say it: we recommend you skip St Martin’s wine altogether if you have a discerning palate about wines. Seems like we’ve tried to out-French the French and their Beaujolais Nouveau, and it makes little sense: wines in Beaujolais are picked earlier than here, and the wines are marketed a good week later. So being „first“ doesn’t always mean being better, and we gotta be honest here: we never had a St Martin’s wine that we liked, if you take the context away. Also, St Martin’s wine is a big winery game, so you’re missing out on the small wineries that we like so much. In short: have „normal“ wine instead. Which ones? Here’s a good point to start.
WHERE CAN YOU GET ST MARTIN’S GOOSE?
Here’s our favourite St Martin’s feasts in town.
Alma
Arguably the hottest restaurant in town right now just got a bit hotter, with their goose confit for four - a whole stuffed goose with sides and condiments, dessert and a whole bottles of natural young wine by the legendary Dobrá vinice winery. As always, there are some foraging touches and a health dose of cool. If you have a party of four that is down to feast on a whole bird, book now - these seats can get hard to get.
Výčep
As every year, the St Martin’s weekend is the highlight of Výčep’s calendar. The Wallachian pub in the heart of the Vinohrady district will do the kaldoun driblets soup, only goose legs (according to their executive chef, good whole birds are hard to get and everybody wants the legs anyway), goose wine sausage, goose livers and so on. Výčep always seasons its food well and the atmosphere is great. Book now - their Saturday is fully booked already, and the availability for Friday and Sunday is limited. St Martin’s wines will be offered, too.
[Full disclosure: we run Výčep’s social media, but our own contents are not part of the deal.]
Čestr
The venerable steak house/meat-centric Czech cuisine institution is letting you choose whether you want leg or breast with your side of sauerkraut and a selection of traditional sides. Many tables are booked already, so hurry with your reservation! Čestr is great for bigger parties, and benefits from fresh Pilsner in tanks, and a great wine selection.
Červený jelen
The behemoth of a pub that is the multi-story Červený jelen in Hybernská street is also gearing up for St Martin’s goose weekend, and according to their own social media, the availability is shrinking. They will offer a whole bird or just a leg, kaldoun soup, goose paté, and sweet buns with goose fat and plum jam. Červený jelen is centrally located and great for bigger groups.
Kastrol
While this traditional destination-dining Czech pub is absolutely booked out for the St Martin’s weekend, they will hold on to the St Martin’s menu for the entire week of 13 through 19 November, so even if you cannot get a seat anywhere on St Martin’s proper or on Sunday, this is your place to go in the day afterwards… or if you want to see Prague for a slightly different angle. As always, their St Martin’s menu s quite extensive, offering anything from whole birds to pulled goose in dumpling, goose paté or goose driblets ragout. Great stuff!
Hostinec na Výtoni
Hostinec na Výtoni, a fairly new opening underneath the Vyšehrad castle is a traditional Czech pub with a focus on duck and really nice cooking. For the St Martin’s weekend, they have offered a menu of CZK 1250 per person. If will include creamy goose soup, foie gras terrine, 1/4 goose with almond stuffing, potato pancakes and red cabbage, and warm kolache with honey mead ice-cream. Sounds great, book now - availability is limited.
U Kalendů
We hate to break it to you, but the seats are all sold out for this weekend.
CJ26
The fine-dining venue above the Smíchov district that flies below the radar of most tourism, run by two members of the staff that ran the kitchen of the Four Seasons hotel when it received Prague’s first-ever Michelin star, is offering a 4-course menu without really specifying what’s in the menu. They boast using Dithmascher geese, and the menu will be offered on 10 through 12 November.
U Matěje
U Matěje, one of the most beautiful pubs in Prague run by the famed Chef Punčochář, one of the judges on Czech Masterchef with fine dining roots who decided to cash in on the pub craze of the recent years, is not taking St Martin’s feast too literally and has added a few hunting season touches, so in addition to confit goose leg with potato dumplings and red cabbage, you can expect deer carpaccio with truffle mayo, barley risotto with pumpkin and Brussel sprouts, or deer neck with rose hip sauce, marinated juniper and pumpkin spaetzle. For best results, combine with a glass of fresh Pilsner, and a walk through the Baba Housing Estate.
Café Imperial
In the Pohlreich Republic (Chef Pohlreich is super famous in this country as a TV chef and presented of the Czech version of Kitchen Nightmares) the goose feast is already well under way from Monday, and the whole shebang will wrap up on Sunday. You can get goose rillettes, goose velouté soup, and confit goose legs with bread roll dumplings and white cabbage. Next Door, the restaurant across the street, will serve parfait of goose foie gras, and goose leg confit with red cabbage and potato dumplings.
Vinohradský parlament
The large, modern pub in the National House on the Náměstí míru square in the Vinohrady district is betting big on the goose season, extending the goose feast until November 14 (and starting November 8 already). The menu is quite extensive, and the price is right, too. Classics (kaldoun soup, goose leg confit, whole bird for four to six) are supplemented with some twists unique to the pub, like the dumpling filled with goose confit, or the langoě fried potato pancake with pulled goose. Good stuff!