One unexpected feature of a few days passing through Serbia was a lively craft beer scene… overlaid with a dense fog of cigarette smoke.
We’d assumed that smoking bans had come into place in most countries in the orbit of the EU, or that are tentatively working their way towards membership.
In Serbia, though, it turns out that the smoking ban introduced in 2010 exempted bars, cafes and restaurants. Small establishments can choose to ban smoking if they want to. But based on our observations in the past week, very few opt for anything but ashtrays on every table.
Now, we’ve not written about smoking bans much because, bloody hell, it’s hardly worth the trouble. It’s a highly emotional subject and discussions quickly seem to escalate into arguments.
Personally, though, we welcomed the smoking ban when it came in if only because it made the pub more enjoyable for us.
The complaints against smoky pubs are well known but, in particular, we hated the sore throats, stinging eyes and stinky clothes that resulted from most nights out before 2007.
But even we sometimes indulged in a little nicotine nostalgia, sighing wistfully when a wisp of cigarette smoke drifted by in a pub garden. Proustian wossnames and all that.
In Serbia, however, we realised that we’d forgotten just how intensely smoky pubs used to get, and how pungent the aroma could be.
The first bar where this struck us was the otherwise excellent craft beer bar KOLEKTIV in Niš. As we walked through the door we instantly recognised the mingling of both fresh smoke from live cigarettes and stale smoke baked into the space. There were ashtrays distributed throughout the bar and, between bouts of customer service, the staff also sparked up.
It was bearable for the first hour or so but, as the night grew cooler, people migrated inside from the riverside tables. Before long, there were between 7 and 12 people smoking in a small room, and we started not only to smell it but also to feel it catching at our throats and eyes.
It gave us plenty of food for thought. After some discussion, apart from the inconvenience, we realised why it seemed so odd. We remembered smoky pubs but we’d never known smoky craft beer bars or taprooms. The boom in the number of UK craft beer bars came after around 2010 and taprooms later than that. They’ve always been smoke free.
So, this wasn’t quite like going back in time so much as stepping into an alternate reality.
In Belgrade, we ended up sitting outside at the very impressive Docker brewery taproom in the city’s docklands regeneration area. It wasn’t quite warm enough, and we had to leave earlier than we wanted to as a result. But the inside seating area was simply unbearable, with a wall of chewy smoke hanging like winter mist.
Another nearby brewpub, Gvint, was about the same, as was Krafter, a craft beer bar in the centre of the city.
There’s only so much fun you can have sitting outside shivering, watching other people have fun through the window.
At Krafter, we saw a particularly interesting incident when some customers slammed a couple of windows shut. A testy waiter barrelled over and opened them again, gesticulating angrily. Our guess is that he didn’t want to work his entire shift in a sealed, smoky box.
Once we’d spotted the smoke problem it seemed to follow us around. One museum in Belgrade, with a big NO SMOKING sign on the front door, absolutely stank of cigarettes. The source was a security guard hidden behind a curtain listening to Yugoslavian rock on an ancient tape recorder. Every few minutes we’d hear his lighter click and see smoke curl from his cubbyhole.
Perhaps if we lived in Serbia, we’d get used to it, and our tolerance for smoke would increase. After all, we used to go to smoky pubs, and we didn’t even moan about it that much.
It also occurred to us that there are some craft beer drinkers who are also smokers. They might be reading this and thinking that Serbia sounds like paradise.
If you’re someone who spends a bit too much time hanging around outside taprooms and craft beer bars, puffing away in the cold and the drizzle, you might want to consider Belgrade for your next holiday.
It’s a friendly, fascinating city. The craft beer is of a generally high standard. And nobody will mind if you pair each round with a different brand of cigarette, cigar, or pipe tobacco.
