The history of Carul cu Bere restaurant in Bucharest

Originally a market town, Bucharest was founded around the Princely Court on the banks of Dambovita.

Ștefan Baciu, 20.12.2014, 13:50

A market town from its earliest beginnings, Bucharest was founded around the Princely Court on the banks of the Dambovita river. The ruins of the court can be found today in the city’s historical centre, formerly a trading area full of shops, pubs and inns, places where travelling merchants could stop for the night and have a bite to eat.

One of the best-known such restaurants is called Carul cu Bere and is famous for a number of reasons. First of all, it is housed by a sumptuous building erected in 1899 in the new German romantic style and only served locally brewed bear. Another reason for its popularity is that its foundation is linked to the ideal of the union between Transylvanian Romanians and the Kingdom of Romania.

The history of the restaurant starts in fact in the village of Cata, in the Rupea-Sighisoara region, in Transylvania. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, many Romanians from Transylvania were crossing the border into Romania, which provided them with more opportunities for education and finding employment in the administration. Statistics from the late 19th century say that 150,000 Transylvanians lived in Romania. Some of the most entrepreneurial of them became successful traders, such as the Mircea brothers from Cata, Nicolae, Victor and Ignat, who founded Carul cu Bere in 1879.

In time, the restaurant started being used as a meeting place for Transylvanian Romanians, prominent cultural figures like IL Caragiale, George Cosbuc, Onisifor Ghibu and Octavian Goga, young Bohemians, as well as ordinary people who wanted to drink a local bear. A descendant of the founders of the restaurant, Nicolae Mircea tells us more about the history of the place:

Nicolae Mircea: “According to the records, the Carul cu Bere beer restaurant was founded 135 years ago, in 1879 and belonged to Ioan Cabasanu and the Mircea brothers, all of them from Transylvania. 20 years later, in 1899, the brothers Nicolae and Victor Mircea placed an ad in the paper Adevarul inviting people to a new location at no.5 Stavropoleus Street to taste a special kind of beer that matched the best beers in Munich. That is how the history of Carul cu Bere started, the place where beer always tasted good, either cold or warm, as it was sometimes served at the time. The restaurant had special hot water pumps that could be brought to the table at the request of customers to warm the cold beer. Delicious food was also served, to the accompaniment of music. In time, Carul cu Bere became an emblematic place in Bucharest at the end of the 19th century, but it is still as popular today. It is the merit of the Mircea brothers from Transylvania who learnt from a young age how to make beer. With the help of the Austrian architect Siegfried Kofczinsky, they built their restaurant at a time when the writer Barbu Stefanescu Delavrancea was the mayor of Bucharest. At first, the restaurant was managed by the Nicolae and Victor brothers and then by Nicolae’s family until it was nationalised in 1949 and taken over by the state. The building was claimed by descendents of the Mircea brothers and their ownership rights were restored by the court in 1999. A section of the building, which is not open to the public, is currently undergoing restoration by a team of architects and restorers seeking to rehabilitate this monument which has been deteriorating for 50 years.”

Carul cu Bere survived the demolition frenzy in the 1980s communist Romania, when many of the city’s historical buildings were torn down. Oliver Velescu, a historian working for the History Museum of the City of Bucharest, recalls:

Oliver Velescu: “The union between Transylvania and Romania was also achieved in this place, thanks to people who came here and who dreamt, talked and planned the union. The building went through critical times. 35 years ago, Bucharest was a demolition site. Walking through the city would fill you with terror. I was working at the history museum at the time and trying to rescue what could be rescued from the demolished buildings. Fortunately, Carul cu Bere survived those terrible times.”

Having been restored to the descendents of its rightful owners, Carul cu Bere is currently managed by a commercial company and is undergoing extensive restoration.