At the very foot of Zakmardijeve stube – the staircase that connects the city centre with the Upper Town – lies one of Zagreb’s best hidden gems. Located in the garden space of the Nama department store, Pri Nami is nominally an excellent coffeehouse and cocktail bar with two floors of outdoor terrace courtyard space and a cosy interior – but even this sells the project short.
Marin Levaj and Šiško Horvat Majcan, the minds behind Pri Nami, are keen to emphasise the space as a cultural hub. The clientele consists in large part of those who move through the arts scene of the capital, musicians, actors, directors and the like. Intimate live jazz performances routinely take place in the locale’s interior, while the walls are lined with the work of Croatian artist Vibor Vasarević, beside which QR codes lead curious guests to his website. Levaj and Majcan also mention plans for a live poetry reading and ambitions to host cabaret nights in the near future.
Another point of pride for the business partners is the welcoming atmosphere, something that foreign guests have also gravitated towards. While quality is at the forefront, the owners want Pri Nami to be a casual and inviting space, where the like-minded feel at home regardless of where they hail from. That certainly suits the name, which has a double meaning: one referencing its proximity to the Nama mall, and the other translating roughly to: At Ours.
Pri Nami can be found at Zakmardijeve stube 4, the passageway at the first left turning in Radićeva ulica when approaching from the main square.