“Caru’ cu bere” is a symbolic restaurant for Bucharest where you can enjoy traditional Romanian dishes, prepared according to recipes created many decades ago, in an atmosphere full of tradition and history.
It has an area of 2,300 square meters and has 350 seats in the restaurant, 150 seats in the wine cellar and 160 on the terrace, and the employees serve every day from the more than 200 varieties of food and 13 varieties of beer. The building is located in the old center of the Capital, on Stavropoleos Street, and was declared a Historical and Architectural Monument.
In 1879, there was the “La Carul cu bere” brewery on Calea Victoriei, at the intersection with French Street, owned by Transylvanian Ion Căbășanu. Here, beer was brought to the pub in horse-drawn carriages. Also here, his nephews, the brothers Ion and Gheorghe Mircea, who came to the capital from across the mountains, helped him with his work.
Moreover, they also called the third brother, Nicolae Mircea, to Bucharest. All three worked hard until, in a few years, they managed several shops in the Villacrosse Passage area, also in the beer business.
Later, in 1899, Nicolae Mircea managed, with the help of a mortgage loan from the bank, to start the construction of the Carului cu Bere building, the famous restaurant that still exists today, according to the plans of the architect Zigfried Kofsinsky.
The sketch was so well done that the owner of the building and the founder of the brewery, Nicolae Mircea, received from King Carol I the highest distinctions that the Romanian state could grant at that time, namely the Star of Romania and the Crown of Romania.
The new building was inaugurated in June 1899 and had 9 tables and 36 chairs. It developed quickly, so that it had a basement with cellars for storing beer and wine barrels, a high ground floor that served as a hall-type restaurant, two floors for the owner’s and employees’ quarters, and also a large attic.