Thematic Exhibition "The Poet’s Kitchen and Creative Bohemia"

At the Aleksandrs Čaks Museum, a thematic exhibition from the museum collection materials, "The Poet’s Kitchen and Creative Bohemia," will be on view from 15 September to 28 November 2026.

One of the oldest and most popular meeting places for poets and artists to exchange ideas were cafés. Ordinary people (coachmen, wood sawyers, fishermen, log drivers) favored the Daugava embankment inn "Enkurs," whose types were studied by many artists for their works of art. Nearby were also meeting places popular with sailors, "Melnā bumba" and the legendary "Bedre," where Aleksandrs Čaks found types for his literary works. In the summer of 1928, after returning from teaching in Drabeši, he became acquainted with young artists who introduced the poet to the world of restaurants and taverns. Čaks enjoyed the atmosphere of cafés and restaurants, where he was among people and at the same time felt apart from others.

The exhibition, assembled from the museum’s collection materials, is structured in three parts:

• •Čaks’s family business activities;
• •cookbooks, recipe notebooks, and the dishes most often mentioned in the memories of the poet’s friends;
• •the history of the most famous Riga restaurants and taverns that A. Čaks often visited.

On view in the exhibition are notes from the poet to family members preserved in the museum collection, photographs from social gatherings with friends, cookbooks collected by the poet’s mother, as well as manuscripts reflecting his passion for cooking and the culinary arts.