Ventas RumbaApartments
Reservation
Kaļķu Street Quarter, Where the Garages Became a Brewery

The New Quarter · 2 min read

Kaļķu Street Quarter, Where the Garages Became a Brewery

A derelict block of garages and workshops, now the most interesting address in town.

Kuldīga isn’t only 18th-century timber. Ten minutes from the old town, a run-down complex of Soviet-era garages and workshops on Kaļķu iela has been turned into a creative-industrial quarter, and it’s where a lot of the town’s energy now is.

The sign on the corner. From the street it still looks like the garage block it was.
The sign on the corner. From the street it still looks like the garage block it was.

DUNA Brewery is the anchor. It’s an independent, family-run craft brewery, and the taproom and kitchen sit opposite the brewhouse itself, with a shop attached. The range runs from clean lagers to beers aged in Burgundy oak barrels, plus lemonades made with local fruit and cocktails for people who aren’t drinking beer. There’s a kitchen menu built to go with what’s in the glass, and they run brewery tours and tastings.

The brewhouse. The taproom is directly opposite it, which is the whole idea.
The brewhouse. The taproom is directly opposite it, which is the whole idea.
Clean lagers through to beer aged in Burgundy oak, plus the lemonades, all in one fridge.
Clean lagers through to beer aged in Burgundy oak, plus the lemonades, all in one fridge.

Around it in the same block you get KOPA, a modern Latvian restaurant and one of the best-rated places in Kuldīga. Curonia Coffee roasts on site. Rudys Brewing makes kombucha. Then a paint workshop, a restoration centre, a cosmetics lab and a smokehouse, which is a fairly odd list for one yard.

Inside KOPA. One long table down the middle, and the kitchen open at the end of it.
Inside KOPA. One long table down the middle, and the kitchen open at the end of it.

Pianos that stand taller than the pianist, built behind a former garage door.

The oddest tenant is Klavins Piano. David Klavins builds concert instruments here, including the upright grands he’s known for, pianos that stand taller than the pianist and have to be played from a platform. It’s a genuinely strange thing to find behind a former garage door.

The workshop on Kaļķu iela 16, with an instrument up on the bench and someone at the keys.
The workshop on Kaļķu iela 16, with an instrument up on the bench and someone at the keys.
A finished Klavins upright out in the yard, badge and all.
A finished Klavins upright out in the yard, badge and all.

The quarter also puts on concerts through the summer. Worth checking what’s on before you come. It’s the sort of place where an ordinary evening turns into something else.

The yard on a summer evening. This is what the block looks like when something is on.
The yard on a summer evening. This is what the block looks like when something is on.

Photographs

← All articles

Our Journal

More About Kuldīga