The Republic of the East

This restaurant celebrates a country that only existed for a few weeks.

At the end of the first world war, the country of Austria-Hungary disintegrated into countless smaller countries. Among the chaos, one country briefly appeared in the eastern region of Slovakia. It was called both the Slovak People’s Republic and the East Slovak Republic.

It claimed that Eastern Slovaks’ dialect and culture was far too detached for them to be considered Slovaks and that they had more in common with the Hungarians than with the new Czechoslovakia. It only existed for a couple of weeks, from December 11 through 29, 1918 before being occupied by the Czechoslovak army.

The only memory of this brief era in history is a restaurant with the same name. It pays homage to this time by having its menu completely in the East Slovak dialect as well as having the republic’s constitution displayed for everyone to see in their bathrooms, as well as allowing you to sign up for ’citizenship’ on their website.