Czech café serves gold-topped 'smažák' to keep backpackers at bay

In a country where a humble plate of fried cheese and tartare sauce is served on every corner, one café in the Bohemian Forest has taken smažený sýr to glittering new heights.

A café on Kvilda in the Šumava region has begun serving fried cheese topped with edible gold leaf for a staggering CZK 1,500, CNN Prima News reports. Rather than being an ambitious culinary move, it's a creative strategy to deter what owner Luis Přibyl calls "baťůžkáři" (backpackers): budget-conscious tourists who might bring their own food to eat at Kvildy Café's tables.

The preparation involves the usual ritual of breading and frying the cheese, but then takes a luxurious detour when the chef applies two to three sheets of edible gold leaf on top. On a bad day, when precision wavers, it might take four or five sheets at CZK 100 each.

Přibyl defends the seemingly outrageous pricing with math: the ingredients cost around CZK 400, and applying the standard "4.5x hospitality multiplier," he asserts that CZK 1,500 is actually quite reasonable. "It filters people who come here for something extra and aren't disturbed by backpackers who might want to eat their own schnitzel here," he explained to CNN.

The average Czech smažák with sides costs around CZK 170 today, up from CZK 90–110 a decade ago. Even in Prague's tourist-heavy center, you'll rarely pay more than CZK 420. The gold-plated version represents a huge leap in fried cheese economics.

Yet, the café reportedly sells about one golden fried cheese per month. One Kvilda local told CNN, "we're a nation that loves fried cheese, so why not? It's a good experience, and where else will you get one?"