Łódź - Craft Bars, Architecture & Priest Live!

So, what had I come to Łódź for?
Perhaps to marvel at Post Industrial architecture, learn about Polish cinema, promenade up Piotrkowska (one of the longest commercial streets in the world at 3.1 miles).
But mostly to drink craft beer and listen to heavy metal.

We spent our Sunday morning in the film museum, which is a delight of a place.  Even if Polish cinema and old cameras and projectors aren't your cup of tea, Scheibler’s palace, in which the museum is located, is rather spectacular. 

There was a fascinating montage of the many buildings in the city which have been cinemas over the years, each one morphing on the screen to a modern shot of what they look like now.
So many long-lost cinemas, not one of them converted to a JD Wetherspoon.

Having spent much longer than anticipated in the film museum, we ambled up the road to take a look at another converted red-brick factory. 

Monopolis was formerly the site of a vodka distillery and bottling plant, although we diligently skipped the vodka museum incorporated into the redevelopment.

(Also worth a look are the recently completed EC1 next to the train station with its eye-catching architecture and the more commercial Manufactura which started the whole post-industrial boom in the city).
We caught the tram back to Piotrkowska where I got rather carried away snapping pictures of the stunning buildings...

And where we paired savoury pancakes with bottled blueberry milk stout.

 

On Sunday afternoon we met up with an old friend and work colleague in Łódź,  Despite this being Jola's home town, the craft beer revolution had bypassed her.
"You're where? Piwoteka Narodowa...never heard of it."

Would Mrs PropUptheBar be able to go one step further and convince her to order 0.3l of the Nowomiejski Tomato Gose?  Nope.

Piwoteka Narodowa Craft Beer & Food (Gen. Romualda Traugutta 4, 90-107 Łódź)

Of the 20 beers listed on a blackboard to the side of the bar, all but one were from their own Piwoteka Brewery.
I made a bold choice of the 'Konska Dawka 2025', a black saison with horseradish and various berries.  "Gherkin water!" declared Mrs PropUptheBar, rather put-out that I'd picked this and had the gaul to criticise her (challenging) tomato gose.

The bar is deceptively large, split into three seating areas, although it's on the stark functional side and would benefit from some Bass memorabilia and general brewery tat.

With Grodziskie in both Turkish or American styles, a cola nuts sour, and gooseberry ale as some of the more unusual offerings, this is a bar that will keep the adventurous beer aficionado busy for some time.
I steered clear of anything too off-beat and went all-in for the 'Od Morza Do Morza' 10% imperial porter - very nice, yet quite inappropriate for mid-afternoon on a hot sunny day.

Just one door along the street is Jaberwocky.

Jaberwocky (Gen. Romualda Traugutta 4, 90-107 Łódź)
Where we found speed-dating in full-swing, retreating to the farthest corner of the room to escape the hubbub of thirty-odd people nattering in unison.  Despite the event being hosted in a beer bar, none of the participants seemed to actually be drinking anything.  Could it be that double-IPAs don't help when speed dating?

Much less choice here, with 6 of the 12 spaces on the beer board filled - the lagers and NEIPAs seeming pedestrian after the craziness next door. 
A sensible Trzech Kumpli 'Wonder Haze' 4.8% New England pale ale for me.

Right, let's find somewhere that isn't on the most obvious list of Łódź beer bars. 

Rademenes Drink Bar (Piotrkowska 83 lewa oficyna, 90-423 Łódź),
Tucked through an archway off Piotrkowska, we were a little uncertain heading down a quiet side street, residents in apartments leaning precariously out of 4th floor windows above us on a balmy summer evening.

The wooden terrace covering the outdoor benches of the bar, however, had a bit of a Santa's grotto look to it...

There were a handful of customers on the outdoor seats, not a soul within except for a rather eccentric owner conversing with his pub cat.
Look at it though...

What a cracking place.
And what a bottle selection!

The problem was trying to identify the bottles along those two long shelves.  Almost as challenging as trying to see the keg fonts at the back of the bar in the Grapes in Oxford.
I probably missed some rare finds, ending up with Browar Gosciszewo's 'Komtur', which I disappointingly realised I'd had before in a Beer 52 box.
Just don't let the gaffer talk you into trying the fearsomely strong 'craft' flavoured vodka in the fridge.

Let me leap one day ahead - on this fearsomely long post - to the 7th of July.

Where options were limited in Łódź on a Monday.
Trad museum and gallery closing day, leaving tourists with no choice but to sit in the chain brew pub all afternoon.

Located on a prime spot along Piotrkowska, the Bierhalle is part of a small chain that originated in Warsaw.  We'd visited the Warsaw branch years ago, so I didn't really feel we needed to do this one any more than I need to tick off all the Brewhouse & Kitchens in the UK.  But with several recommended bars shut at the beginning of the week, this eventually lured us in.

Bierhalle (Piotrkowska 100, 90-004 Łódź)
Inside the grand-looking Deco buillding were tiled floors, decorative hogshead barrels, fixed wooden booth seating surrounding a big central staircase, and the odd feature of a managers office in a windowed wooden booth in the corner.  Giving the boss the chance to watch over their traditionally frocked staff as they lay Bavarian chequered table clothes in front of customers.
There were four beers available - a pils, marzen, wheat, and altbier.  I opted for the 5.8% marzen - Marcowe - which was...hmmm...okay.  Which isn't a great verdict considering the size of my glass...

Much more to my taste was a bar one block away from the tourist drag, not necessarily looking the most promising as you approach through a car park and up the crumbling steps.

Pub Spółdzielczy Łódź (al. Tadeusza Kościuszki 80/lok. 309, 90-437 Łódź)
There is a bright terrace at the front with big picture windows, shared with the coffee shop/bakery next door.  The main room of the Spółdzielczy pub was a rectangular affair, dimly lit, with 'how beer is made' murals on one wall.
Spółdzielczy Browar is actually located on the north coast above Gdynia, this Łódź location being labelled as a brew-pub but actually being an outpost bar.

An exhausting twenty beers on draft, not to mention the cans and bottles in the fridge.
Seven of the draft beers were their own concoctions, so I opted for their 5.5% dry stout.  Nice, but no match for the monster 'Lódvuk', a 14.1% Baltic stout aged in bourbon barrels.  Available in a sensible 0.1l measure at just over £4.  And quite superb.   

When we arrived there was a fella on the patio sketching a picture of his companion, one chap inside talking to himself, and us.  By the time we left (which was quite a while later - there were a lot of good things on that beer list) there was a queue to the bar and a decent crowd in.  Many of the customers were wearing Judas Priest t-shirts, for the Midlands rockers were in town this evening and PropUptheBar had procured tickets.

The show was in the Atlas Arena, situated in the bottom corner of Piłsudskiego Park, next door to the ŁKS Łódź football ground, a 5-minute tram ride from the Unicorn Stable tram stop.

I'm really not one of the "metal maniacs" that Rob Halford kept on addressing the crowd as.  I hadn't even got the memo that I was supposed to be wearing a black t-shirt. 
And support act Gloryhammer, with their wizard capes and banks of power-metal keyboards were really not to my taste.
But...Judas Priest?  Hell, yeah! 🎸

On a hot evening, the ventilation in the arena was just right, allowing Halford to stalk the stage in three-quarter length leather jacket.  The AV and light show was great.  The kids (aged roughly 50'ish) at the front roared along and pumped fists in the air.
Perhaps occasionally one-too-many fast double-headed guitar solos for my liking, in a set that barely paused for breath.  But I was blown away by the broodingly sinister 'Touch of Evil', and the majestic pummeling which was 'Painkiller'.  

The set finished with pop-tastic shout-along 'Living After Midnight'.
It's a long time since I did anything but sleep after midnight.  My idea of "rockin' til the dawn" in the dubious karaoke bar next to the hotel was kyboshed by Mrs PropUptheBar in the name of good taste and common sense.