Little yard goes a long way

Going Out :

With its summer island ambience, Dvorištance is a good place to hang out both by day and night, as long as the warm weather lasts.

Despite being very hard to notice from the outside, Dvorištance [Little Yard] has proven to be one of the premier nightspots this summer for those looking for a casual and relaxed place to party in Belgrade.

The riverside Belgrade neighbourhood known as Savamala has blossomed over the last several years. Earlier, it was a place that people avoided, since it’s close to the bus and train stations and is generally considered one of the more polluted and uneventful parts of the city centre. But that has changed in recent years, with a lot of hip new clubs and cafes sprouting up in this area of town, located under the Kalemegdan fortress and bordering the River Sava.

The city has plans to turn this part of the city into one of the most exclusive parts of Belgrade, but this plan is years away from being completed, as the bus and train stations must be relocated before this process begins.

However, regardless of the city taking its time in revitalising Savamala, nightclub owners have seen its potential. The Mikser festival made Savamala its home this summer, while hotspots like KC Grad, Čorba Cafe and Mladost have turned the area into a hub of weekend nightlife.

Dvorištance is located in the same street that hosts KC Grad, Čorba Cafe and a number of other clubs, making it probably the smallest street with the largest number of clubs in all of Belgrade. Dvorištance is located at the end of Braće Krsmanović and standing in front of it you probably wouldn’t even be able to tell that it was a club unless you put an ear to the gate and heard some suspiciously loud music being played in the yard of a residential home.  

Dvorištance is a diminutive form of Dvorište, which means “yard”, so the club is actually called “Little yard.” And that is pretty much exactly what it is; it looks like you are walking into the home of someone who has invested a lot of time and money into throwing a graduation party in their backyard, with something of a Luau theme involved. There is no sign in front with the name of the club on it; you just have to know that it is there. If you don’t, you’ll probably just walk straight by. If you do know about it, all you need to do is open the gate at Braće Krsmanović 14 and you are in Dvorištance.

It’s definitely a summer club and I’m not even sure if they have any plans to make it into a year-round place to visit, but it will definitely continue to be a good place to hang out this autumn, as long as the weather stays relatively warm. Even the bathroom is located outdoors.

The décor, as touched on previously, reminds you of a party with some type of island theme, a Tiki Party, Luau, or something of that nature. The bar is wooden and looks as if it was taken off a beach and transplanted there. There are a lot of Jamaican, African and reggae-themed images and colours, giving it a summer island vibe. Even though there is no uniform idea behind the décor and the design of the yard obviously wasn’t thought up by a professional, it does its job in providing a theme that’s inviting and cheerful.

Dvorištance is as much fun by day as it is by night. It’s a great place to relax with friends after work or in the middle of the day if you are looking for somewhere to hang out in the city. There is a ping-pong table set up during the day, as well as cards, chess, checkers and many other games that patrons can have fun entertaining themselves with. Dvorištance also offers free wi-fi, which makes it a great place to get work done if you are tired of sitting around your home.

The ping-pong table is cleared away at night and most of the games are put aside in favour of quality entertainment. The weekends can get packed here, so it’s best to make a reservation earlier in the day if you want to get a table.

As far as music goes, Dvorištance sometimes hosts live music, but it is usually a more DJ–friendly atmosphere. The music played pretty much coincides with what you would expect – reggae, dancehall, Afrobeat and more “tribal” sounding electronica are what the club usually serves at night. 

So, if you are looking for the hottest new spot in Savamala to spend the last remaining weeks of good weather out in the open, Dvorištance should be at the top of your list of places to visit.