Alf & Bet roasts coffee and bakes bread, and the same crew runs the EMA espresso bars, where most of that coffee and bread is served. The roastery is in the former Municipal Brewery in Holešovice, and the bakery in an old industrial workshop in Libeň, not far from Palmovka. Alf & Bet buys through long-term relationships with farmers and tests its coffees every day in the bars; it visited the Colombian farms of Yannin Diaz Arias and Angel Maria López in September 2023. Most coffees are roasted twice, once for filter and once for espresso, and there is a Machine roast for automatic espresso machines.

The first EMA opened in 2013 by Florenc, in the building of the Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The name comes from there: the bar was nearly called “Ema mele kávu”, a play on the Czech primer line “Ema mele maso”, and was shortened to EMA. It was redesigned in 2023 by molo architekti. The second EMA, by Palmovka, is part of the Libeň bakery and looks into it, and this is where Alf & Bet first roasted. Another is in Palác Karlín, and the newest is in the former brewery in Holešovice, where the roastery now stands and the bar looks straight into it.

Every bar except the one in Libeň also grinds coffee from other micro-roasteries; the Libeň bar pours only Alf & Bet. The bars serve bread, sandwiches, buns and seasonal drinks. EMA stopped using paper cups on 1 April 2024.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: EMA espresso bar