Prague, March 3 (CTK) – Vytopna, a Czech network of restaurants with model trains serving customers in addition to waiters, plans to expand to China and the USA in the years to come, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes Friday.
As many as 120 pubs, with tables criss-crossed by tiny rail tracks for model trains to transport the ordered drinks to customers are to be established in China within 15 years. The first one is to open in Canton, south China, in August, HN writes.
Vytopna is the Czech word for a building used by railroads for servicing and storing locomotives.
Vytopna’s founder and owner Petr Fridrich has signed a contract with a Chinese partner who bought a licence from him and will operate the pubs in China.
Simultaneously, Fridrich is negotiating about hiring large premises in Chicago to open a Vytopna in.
“We believe that our system will work in Chicago, a city with a strong community of beer fans,” Fridrich is quoted as saying.
He plans to establish a small brewery as part of the Chicago enterprise.
If the first pub in Chicago is a success, Vytopna might seek further expansion in the U.S., he said.
At present, model trains distribute only beverages in Vytopna pubs. Fridrich says he wants to change the meals on offer in a way to make them train-transportable as well.
The first Vytopna pub was established in Brno in 2009. Another two operate in the centre of Prague. Some six million customers visited the pubs so far.
“We do not plan to further expand in the Czech Republic, we want to remain unique,” Fridrich said, but added that the Vytopna in Prague’s Wenceslas Square might be enlarged to raise its capacity from 250 seats to 400.
A total of 42 model trains, pulled by engines, move along a total of 2.5 kilometres of tracks in his three pubs.
In Prague, most of the customers are tourists, and families with children drop in at weekends.
“The present children no longer know playing with model trains. Fans of model trains have been dying out, the small trains are becoming an exclusive item,” Fridrich told HN.
