10th of December 1988, 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was agreed upon and signed. Czechoslovakia was still taken over by the communistic regime back then, yet a very first legally allowed gathering, or a demonstration if you wish, took place on Škroupovo square and Václav Havel happened to be one of the main speakers. Amongst other things he was also an author of a drama The Audience. Its main character Ferdinand Vaněk is being forced to work in a brewery (this play is partially autobiographical - Vaněk represents Havel). This connection of history with the brewery from Havel's drama and the place where our pub U Sadu is located is how the name of this beer arised.
This is where it all started. A few years back when it wasn't so common we decided to go against the mainstream and got our first batch of our beer made. We had an idea what the beer should be like, although to make it really popular we asked our customers, who have been present to the nascency of our new beer, for even more inspiration. We have let them choose the characteristics and qualities of the beer so that it gives them the true feeling of pleasure right after the first sip. Then we just had to come up with the right name. Eventually it was named SÁDEK 11, and we thank you for that.
After a huge success with our first beer we decided to celebrate its 5th anniversary by having another special local beer brewed. This time it was SÁDEK English Pale Ale. At the same time we wanted to thank our customers for their loyalty and offer them something new that they can only enjoy in our pub .
In almost a hundred years of its existence our pub remembers truly a lot. Many of our customers were and actually still are publicly known figures such as artists, athletes, politicians. We have appeared in live streams of public and private TV channels countless times. Our premises could be seen in documentaries, movies and also local and even foreign music videos. We are located roughly 200 meters north from Jiřího z Poděbrad square on Škroupovo square, which has been named after a music composer František Škroupa. It is a milestone between two well known Prague districts Vinohrady and Žižkov.
First mentions about our pub go as far as to the year of 1929. It means that first customers were visiting this place in times of the first republic, then during the second world war, as well as in dark times when our beautiful land has been occupied and taken by the communists.
It was at this time when Šroupovo square has been marked into our history forever.
During so called Normalization a very first legal demonstration took place here. It happened on 10th of December 1988, exactly 40 years after the universal declaration of human rights was signed, thanks to French president François Mitterrand, who had a condition under which he would visit communist Czechoslovakia. He asked for the opposition not to be persecuted during his stay. The previous day he had a breakfast with eight dissidents which was also mentioned by Václav Havel in his opening speech on Škroupovo square.
“Dear friends, when I was locked up in Ruzyně jail 3 weeks ago, as well as many of my friends, I have been thinking of all sorts of things. For example, if I was going to stay there for good. If someone told me that I was going to have breakfast with a french president and the next day I will be speaking at a forbidden event I would have thought that they were joking. Which does not mean that I can not be locked up back in the cell of Ruzyně jail in couple of hours ”
National security was recording this event of course and they estimated that approximately 5000 people attended.
The communist party only allowed this event because they wanted to avoid criticism in context with a visitation of the French president and to enhance their media credit abroad. If they only knew what this gathering was going to lead to, they would have changed their mind for sure. It was the beginning of the end of communistic regime. After a series of other demonstrations it finally fell less than a year later in 1989.