Getting perked up in the park

Going Out :

With its handy location and good design, Central Park has quickly established itself as the city's new night haunt of choice.

With a great location, cutting-edge design and owners who already have experience of success on the Belgrade nightclub scene, it’s easy to see why Central Park is the most popular new nightspot in the Serbian capital this summer.

The new bar comes from the managers of the Ander Bar, which has been a popular nightclub for years in Belgrade. Central Park is located where the old Park restaurant once was, but, once you step inside, you will barely recognise what’s left. The entire interior and exterior of the old and run-down restaurant have been revamped and modernised.

The old Park restaurant was a locale that time seemed to pass by. Although the location was exceptional, across the street from the Kalemegdan Park and one street over from Belgrade’s most populous pedestrian zone, Knez Mihajlova, the restaurant was only ever crowded when someone threw a wedding reception, or when organised groups of senior citizens came to the restaurant for a weekly social event.

Central Park’s owners gutted the old restaurant and gave it a complete facelift, but thankfully kept the old restaurant’s best asset – the large trees located in the yard area and the fantastic shade that they provide.

One thing that might not be clear to many has to do with the branding of the bar itself.

Before Central Park opened up as a summer attraction, the restaurant portion of the old Park restaurant was renovated to look cutting-edge and modern, and the new venue was given the name Promet.

At the time of this new café/restaurant’s opening, the outdoor area that is now Central Park’s primary venue was turned into a parking lot for Promet.

Thankfully, the managers of the bar realised that they were wasting a fantastic piece of property by turning it into a parking lot, and finally in the first week of June, the new Central Park concept bar was introduced.

Since the opening of the bar, Central Park has become one of the most talked about and frequented bars in the city. Advertised as a clubbing and barhopping experience akin to the best such venues in the world, Central Park claims to offer all of the best in entertainment services.

The best thing about the bar is that the space has been used exceptionally well and every metre of the bar’s design was thought out. The rectangular outside area has large bars lining it on two sides and the rest of the outer are is covered with seating. This is good because it opens up the middle of the bar for more tables and seats; it also gives people walking by the bar a glimpse of the atmosphere immediately.

If you are walking by Central Park, it will appear to be at capacity just because all of the seating along the sides of bar have been filled up, and it looks like a very enticing place to check out when you are on the outside looking in.

And the notion that the bar has reached capacity is usually not an illusion; Central Park has been flooded with patrons almost every day since its opening in early June.

Truly, there is nothing that spectacular about the bar, the fact is just that it looks good, its location is phenomenal and it's something new for the summer in Belgrade where people might be tired of having to choose between going to the river for some dancing and music, or sitting in a café in the city centre for drinks and conversation. Central Park is a place where these two worlds meet and merge.

Thanks to the shade provided by the natural greenery in the bar, it is a fine place to have drinks or even lunch during the day, and at night it is a great place to go out and be seen, have drinks and converse, or even listen to loud music and dance - all without living the city centre.

If you are planning on going over the weekend this summer, and this includes Thursday and Sunday, you are best off making a reservation or coming early if you want to get a table.

While Central Park has already cemented itself as a tremendous success this summer, it will be interesting to see if the indoor section of the bar, which was earlier called Promet will be just as popular during the colder seasons, and of course, whether Central Park’s summer success has a repeat performance in 2013.