"My wife at the time was looking for something interesting to do, and I always liked traveling and dining well, so opening a small hotel seemed logical," he says. But Hoffmeister quickly realized that his new project would be nothing less than a full-time job.

From a small guesthouse, the building grew into a small hotel that today has 47 rooms, underground parking, a wine cellar and a spa. And Hoffmeister's "side project" keeps on growing. Recently, the hotel underwent a major reconstruction after Hoffmeister decided to rent the adjacent historical building from his neighbor to increase his room capacity. As part of the reconstruction, new sound-proof windows were installed in all the rooms to drown out the noise of the busy street. Three new apartments, housed in a building across the road from the hotel, are still under construction. And Hoffmeister notes that minor upgrades, which he estimates total around 4 million Kč ($158,040) every year, are done on a regular basis. "In the hotel business, it's important to keep up with the latest trends," he says.

Hoffmeister says that he inherited his tastes for eating and living well from his father, Adolf Hoffmeister, a famous Czech artist and writer. The late Hoffmeister was a well-traveled man with many talents, having worked as, among other things, an illustrator, scenery designer, cartoonist, radio commentator, journalist, translator, teacher, art critic and diplomat.

In developing the hotel, Hoffmeister took a great deal of inspiration from his father. This is evident the moment you enter the hotel lobby. Directly opposite the entrance hang rows of Adolf Hoffmeister's drawings, and to the right is a huge collage of signatures. The collage is actually a compilation of the artist's guest book, and on closer inspection you will notice among the scrawls such names as Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

When it comes to the design of the interior, Hoffmeister characterizes the style as "Neo Art Deco." In many ways, though, it's a melange of styles, with Hoffmeister artworks providing the main unifying theme. Heavy red drapes, thick brass railings and geometrical Art Deco furniture mingle with Roman columns and flower-pattern curtains. Bathrooms equipped with remote-control gas fireplaces and complicated-looking Jacuzzis are housed in rooms with 15th-century vaulted ceilings. Above all, it's a combination of the old and the new.

The same applies to the building's exterior. Petr Keil of KMS Architects, the firm responsible for the original building design as well as the recent reconstruction, says that one of his main concerns was to evoke the Baroque ambience of the area around Prague Castle. "We wanted the facade of the hotel to fit in with the surrounding historical buildings," he says.

When it came to designing the rooms, Keil says that the hotel owner had a great deal of input. In fact, in some instances, Hoffmeister, who besides being a hotelier is also a documentary filmmaker, designed some of the more recently done interiors himself. "I always like to be able to give vent to some of my creative impulses," he says.

The hotel's basement, which had been carved into rock centuries ago, houses a spa, a conference room and a wine cellar, where a wine-tasting club called Dlouhý stůl přátel vína holds its meetings.

Although French cuisine dominates in the hotel's kitchen, Hoffmeister points out that the wine cellar contains over 50 different types of Czech and Moravian wines. "We're a Czech hotel above all else," he says.

The hotel restaurant also does catering and has provided dinner for such notable personages as former Czech President Václav Havel and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. With evident pride, Hoffmeister also notes that former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once visited the hotel's downstairs wine bar.