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Location: Ul. Domovinskog rata 42, 21000, Split, Croatia

Year of Inscription: 2024

Venue Type: Caffe Bar / Historic Venue / Pub

Map

Description

Gallery

EBG Rating:	8.6/10
Choice/ Quality of Drinks	❤️❤️❤️❤️ Several taps offering Croatian craft beer from independent breweries, alongside better known offerings like Ozujsko and Pilsner Urquell. Considerably better than average. Typical Caffe Bar fare when it comes to alternatives.
Style/ Décor	❤️❤️❤️❤️ A surviving wood-strip bar divided between a lower floor you step down to off the street and a mezzanine/balcony floor with old school Vienna café style furnishings and decoration. Highly personalised main bar with some 70s and 80s relics such as a popcorn machine and old vinyl records. Cartoons across the wall on the stairwell. Small ground floor room to the other side of the entrance nearer the toilets popular with dog owners, a bit of an overspill area.
Atmosphere/ Character	❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Hugely characterful, an immediate sense not only of institution but thriving social scene, a broad clientele across age and class, however it remains a smoky venue which is something you must bear in mind.
Amenities/ Events	❤️❤️❤️❤️ Snacks, TV, books, outdoor seating.
Value For Money	❤️❤️❤️❤️ Entirely fair value for money, indeed almost pointedly cheap for some of the offerings.
Description	Dating from 1973, Basket is rightly known as the cosiest bar in town. Formerly a hangout for local journalists, it is easy to see why, at a venue which is pitched somewhere between a Viennese café and a dive bar. Wood panelling, Neapolitan hues and café furnishings in a bar that is shaped more like something you’d find in the scuzzier parts of Manhattan’s dive scene. It is worth reinforcing over and over again that pubs and bars of this format simply do not exist in Croatia, or are such an endangered species that they can technically be described as extinct. Wood panelling out front hints at the continuing theme inside. A step down to a dive bar counter with TV and popcorn machine to the left, and a busy, cluttered, homely and artful bar area, some of which appears unchanged for decades. We must inevitably mention the fogbank of smoke – yes, that is another element of the past kept alive here. It isn’t all nostalgia though, the bar offers an up to date selection of beers including Croatian craft beer from independent breweries, there’s a TV which normally shows Hajduk Split games and this remains very much a cultural hub with a broad clientele. The upstairs lounge is permanently popular for people hanging out at a more leisurely pace, and you’ll notice the stairwell has been subject to hundreds of comic art pieces. Those with dogs tend to choose the side room near the toilets which is a little bit of an overspill area, but quite characterful in itself, with dust motes suspended in the light and cig fumes cascading into the room. Vinyl records appear on the walls, and you’ll often hear classic rock in the background (not too loud thankfully). Just to add to the list of upsides to coo over, it’s worth pointing out just how fairly priced the drinks are here, at least 15-25% cheaper than what you can pay in the old town, despite the fact this is a popular place. It is difficult to understate just how much better this bar is than pretty much everything else in the city. (Added August 2024)