Metro Chill-out-club is a small, comfortable underground place with more sofas than a furniture store and a penchant for electronic music. If you miss the tall, narrow black banner with jagged fire-red stripes that hangs in the street, the bar is kind of hard to see. The entrance is set back from the footpath in a dark archway and the only clues are the illuminated Pilsner beer company sign and the green-and-orange zebra-striped door if it happens to be swinging open at the time.

Inside the zebra-striped door you’ll find a zebra-striped staircase, which turns three corners before it reaches the first of the three subterranean bar rooms. The first two rooms are long and narrow and served by the same bar. The larger back room is surrounded by low built-in couches and somewhat unfortunately has a large Foosball table plonked right in the centre of it. There are also a couple of little seating nooks and crannies that each seat two or three people at most. There are some clever artistic flourishes in the design of the bar, but they’re obviously from a few years ago and are starting to get grubby and look a little worn now. With a good, thorough clean-up and a stronger ventilation system, it would certainly rank among the best set-up bars in the city.

Metro’s relatively small capacity helps to give the place the slightly exclusive feel of a club. The staff is generally fairly pleasant, and even if they might have to come back to double-check your order, they’re likely to do it with a smile. The music is what you might expect from a “chill-out-club;” laid-back American groovy electro-jazz. During their busier times, they often have DJ’s playing several nights per week, usually Friday and Saturday and sometimes either Wednesday or Thursday as well. The patrons are usually fairly easy-going and casually dressed.

Metro is the kind of place that makes your clothes stink of cigarette smoke within about 60 seconds after entering. There are quite often people standing just outside the front door smoking, but the smoke there has a somewhat fustier aroma. The bar staff probably tends to smoke outside more than in, if their short-term memory loss is anything to go by.

The beer is Pilsner: 300ml bottles for 25Kc, 500ml bottles for 35. The same beer on tap is cheaper-300ml for 17Kc and the half-litre glasses are 25Kc. It’s supposed to be open until 7am, but I once walked past at about 9:30 one morning and saw a big group of disheveled but well-clothed 20-somethings who had fairly obviously been up partying all night staggering from there out onto the street.

Hard to find unless you know it’s there, but on a good night, it’s one of Olomouc’s best bars.