My next trip will be to Bruggy

Cafe New York in Budapest

Let’s go to Cafe New York...

The four-floor New York Palace was built in 1894

in eclectic style by a New York-based life insurance company: of course, not as a palace but as an elegant office complex. (opened by Sándor Steuer a member of a famous coffee-family

The cafe became one of the most popular iconic cafés

of fin-de-siécle Budapest, especially amongst

Budapest literati: writers frequented the café for its inspirational atmosphere and company as well as for good coffees and meals. Can you imagine that there were 400 different journals and papers in the café to read at the turn of the 20th century?

 “Indeed, this is where Sir Alexander Korda – director of films such as The Private Life of Henry VIII & The Thief of Baghdad - started out for his world award winning career, just as Michael Curtis, Oscar winning director of Casablanca did too,” according to the hotel’s official website.

 

In 1945 the palace was bombarded, the café had to close down in 1947 and was turned into a warehouse. What a beautiful warehouse it must have been…. It opened again in 1954 renamed as ‘Hungaria’ (New York was too capitalist for the then communist Hungary, and it was not a café any more just a buffet and restaurant).

From Spring 2006 the New York Café welcomes
its guestsin all it's former splendour recalling
the milieu of the beginning of the 20th century

For your coffee, I suggest trying the Tiramisu in real
Italian style,
 or just sipping a glass of Tokaj aszú –
according to totally
unscientific studies it helps to feel
the grandeur of the café...

ENJOY!!