26 June 2026
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The Bib Gourmand is a special distinction recognizing restaurants serving high-quality food at great value, helping diners discover outstanding meals for every occasion and every budget. There’s no set formula for a Bib Gourmand restaurant; each one has its own distinct character.
Bohemian Spirit, a family-owned restaurant, was awarded a Bib Gourmand in 2019.
Exploring Czech Cuisine in New York City’s Upper East Side
When you think of dishes like goulash, dumplings and schnitzel, you might not immediately think of Czechia, also known as the Czech Republic, but all three are deeply woven into its cuisine. Czech food is heavily influenced by the country's neighbors, including Austria, Hungary and Germany.
That influence shows up in a predominance of meats, soups and pastries — hearty, warming foods well-suited to the cold, dark winters of Central Europe. Staples include beef, pork, root vegetables and legumes.
For much of the last century, New York City's Upper East Side was home to a cluster of German, Hungarian, Austrian and Czech restaurants. Today, very few remain, and Czech establishments have all but disappeared.
Enter Bohemian Spirit, nestled inside the historic National Bohemian Hall on the Upper East Side. At the helm is Vit Stuchl, who owned restaurants in Prague before embarking on his New York City venture.
Czech Dumplings Are the Heart of Bohemian Spirit’s Menu
When developing the menu at Bohemian Spirit (named after Bohemia, a historical region in the western part of the Czech Republic), Stuchl went the traditional route. In Czechia, variations on classic dishes — think schnitzel and sauerkraut — differ depending on how you grew up eating at home.
"Obviously you prefer whatever your grandma made, or whatever your mom made. So when we built the recipes, we were just tasting and tasting," says Stuchl. "Then I finally decided that this is the way it's supposed to taste."
Essential to Czech food are its dumplings: both bread (knedlíky) and potato (bramborové knedlíky). The bread dumplings are made from flour, yeast and water. They're typically boiled, but at Bohemian Spirit they're steamed — making them especially good for soaking up dishes like chicken paprikash or roast pork and sauerkraut.
The potato dumplings, a mix of potatoes, eggs and flour, were a little trickier to get right. To help, Stuchl turned to family.
"My mother-in-law was here from the Czech Republic and I said there was an issue with the potato dumplings," he says. "I asked her to make hers because I like the way they taste, and we now shred instead of grind the potatoes. That changes the texture and it's exactly as it's supposed to be."
The potato dumplings are served with dishes such as confit duck legs with red cabbage or braised lamb shanks.
Signature Czech Foods: From Goulash to Svíčková
Goulash has its origins in Hungary, but it's also a cornerstone of Czech cuisine. The Hungarian version is a soup-like preparation of beef, potatoes and vegetables. In Czechia, however, the dish becomes a thick, rich stew of beef, onions, herbs, tomato and paprika paste — no vegetables.
The menu also features utopenci, a staple in Czech pubs that’s also known as drowned sausage (the literal translation is drowned men). It’s made by pickling sausages with onions and peppers in a sweet-and-sour vinegar sauce.
Utopenci is a natural companion to beer. "You go for a beer, and you don't really want to eat too much, so they serve these drowned sausages as an appetizer, it just satisfies your cravings," says Stuchl.
Beer is central to Czech dining, and to the experience at Bohemian Spirit. Most diners order Pilsner, which was first brewed in Plzeň in 1842 and is a source of pride to Czech people, as it was the world’s first crisp, pale lager.
Arguably the national dish is svíčková na smetaně — beef in a sweet-sour creamy sauce prepared with carrots, celeriac and bacon. It takes two days to prepare and is served alongside those soft, fluffy Czech bread dumplings.
Svíčková means "little candle," a reference to the shape of beef tenderloin, the cut used to make the dish. But Stuchl offers a more romantic account of how it got its name. "Women used to make the dish the night before it was served, and since there was no electricity, they used candles," he says. "The name is like 'candle sauce.'"
It is also the dish that transports Stuchl back to Prague more than any other. "It’s made only in the Czech Republic. It takes a long time to cook, and you can't find it anywhere else."
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Hero image: Duck leg. © Bohemian Spirit
