E. Birznieka-Upīša iela

Ernesta Birznieka-Upīša iela connects Elizabetes iela and Lāčplēša iela. At the end of Elizabetes iela, this street starts with a poor-looking trolley stop and kebab restaurants. Going further there is pancake and dumpling cafe “Pasaka” – pleasant and affordable prace which is mostly visited by Russian-speakers although you can get service in three languages.

Right there, after “Pasaka”, there is a pub called “Laska”, also known as the “Russian KKC” — KKC being another pub of Riga city center, “Cannabis cultural center”. It seems that Laska is located in old storage building. In front of it there is a parking space that is used in the summers as a large terrace – there are couches, chairs and tables there. Barrels are used as tables, too. At the end of last year “Laska” was renovated, so the rough wooden indoor design has been joined by more fancy details like tiles and interesting light objects.

When you cross Visvalža iela, you get to the office of political party “Progresīvie”. Further there is cafe called Cadets de Gascogne. On this street there is also the former main branch of PNB bank – when it went bankrupt, there were long queues here with people waiting to take out their money. This block was some kind of headquarters for the PNB bank owner Grigory Guselnikov. Next to the bank there was Guselnikov’s co-working space “People Work Coworking”, as well as a gym, “People Fitness”. Guselnikov became famous with hus public announcement that the longtime president of the Bank of Latvia, Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, has demanded a bribe from him. Since the bankruptcy of PNB bank Guselnikov’s businesses have disappeared from this street.

In front of his former empire there is a cafe “Karote 21” where everything is usually bad – even tea. The next building is pub “Aleponija” which is know for its discrete back yard and its inhabitant Bruto the Cat who can often be seen sleeping on a windowsill on the side of the street.