When someone calls himself Pañmáma, and even signs himself as such, it arouses a slight suspicion, but also curiosity.

 

And when you learn that this name was invented by one of the five richest Czechs, that others from the Forbes list are having a good time there, that the whole family takes turns behind the stove, that it's a place where even foxes have a good night with each other and that the local cuisine has a sound that resonates in Brno and Prague, you want to go there.

 

The fact that it's called BLATINY STATEK might still put you off a bit, which might put off a café loafer from the big city with its undisguised rusticity, but you'll go - and you'll do damn well. So first, where you're going and where it is.

 

Two and a half hours from Prague, an hour less from Brno, amidst the picturesque hills of the Žďár Hills and the Highlands, lies the even more picturesque village of Blatiny. Just the drive through the winding roads is soothing, and Blatiny is so surprisingly peaceful and pretty that you'll want to keep coming back.

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If all the villages in the Czech Republic looked like this, the Austrians would fall off their lederhosen with envy and surprise. Of course, the hills around you won't knock you on your ass like the Alps, but, to use a classic phrase, they will definitely move you and invite you to take an easy trip.

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Blatiny has its own coffee roastery, a nice pub, renovated houses, a building closure and also a billionaire among the property owners. And now, who built the Blatiny Farm and who gives it its soul. This building, despite its name, fortunately does not rely on village kitsch with chomouts and such and belongs to Radovan Vitek and his CPI Hotels.

 

Vitek himself has his own cottage here, where he has been coming for years and where he also found the souls that have brought this beautiful hotel with its excellent cuisine to life. In Blatiny, there is the U Kosků inn, which was taken over in 2015 by Marcela Teplá and her son Jan, with her father Jiří taking care of the facilities.

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Jan, with experience from the restaurant of the luxury Prague hotel U Zlaté studně, and Marcela, with experience only from the home stove, created from a pub, where the only thing served was a pushcart, a place where suddenly there were tablecloths on the tables, tasteful interior and porcelain and four dishes on the menu. They invested over a million crowns in the pub and suddenly the doors weren't bursting open.

 

Radovan Vítek was also a frequent visitor, it was he who coined the nickname Paňmáma for Marcela and together they thought of converting the local farm into something better and Jan, Marcela and Jiří would run it. The first bell ringing here at the Farmhouse was after Christmas 2020, but the covid shut everything down on March 13, 2021. So this year is actually the first real season.

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So now we get to what you can expect here. The farmhouse has been restored with generosity and taste by designer and graphic designer Oto Bláha. In the middle of the meadows and pastures is a white building with a round roof and inside a large beautiful restaurant, five rooms, four suites and for hotel guests a sauna, lounge and reading room...

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The hotel has a riding arena and riding academy, horses grazing all around, and even if you don't feel like getting in the saddle, it adds to the beauty of the place perfectly. Pañmáma and Honza have obviously taken the cuisine from Koski up a notch.

 

For breakfast you can get great scrambled eggs, for lunch you can have a bun with apples and cinnamon, but beyond that you can enjoy dishes that are almost on the border of fine dining and you won't believe that they are cooked by someone who used to organize golf tournaments and learned to cook only at home, and she is seconded by her husband - a former top cross-country racer...

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The ingredients are sourced everywhere in the vicinity and she is slowly getting used to having a top-notch small guesthouse-hotel in Blatiny, which attracts guests from Brno and Prague who have tried everything. Here, in the middle of the Žďár Hills, they will find tranquillity, a homely atmosphere, taste, great service and Paňmáma, who cooks like a Michelin chef.

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They'll find comfortable accommodation, views worth a million crowns, they'll find space. Blatiny Farm is a place where one simply finds new energy and beauty.

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Mr. Petr Šimůnek / FORBES June 2022