Harmati Gábor: Utasellátó 60 (Budapest, 2009)

Hungry, thirsty travellers Providing travellers goes back to a long history: in Europe it became a profession already in the Middle Ages and then both monks and laymen hosted travellers. Most of the foreigners who visited Hungary praised food, drink and accommodation they had partaken of in the country, and Hungarians are still very proud of their reputation in the world as generous hosts. The development of transportation triggered the establishment of stagecoach stations and roadside inns along the main commercial routes which gave shelter to the exhausted passengers. Guests often had animals with them, they also needed care: country taverns on the Great Hungarian Plain had pastures and hayfields around and the owner of the tavern was obliged to feed for free the animals belonging to the hosted horsemen and herdsmen on the first day of their stay at the tavern. The spread of the railway system gave rise to new needs, which meant new expectations to be lived up to. People started to travel farther and faster - and they could do it in a more and more comfortable way. It was a breakthrough in the history of travelling when travelling was no more a must but people started to go on trips for fun. In the early days of the railway trains spent so much time at the railway stations that passengers had enough time to have a meal at the railway station. However, railway companies wanted to make trips faster and decrease time elapse of changing trains, which led to the transformation of the trains, too: heating and electricity were no more the only facilities available on 91. Railway station and its restaurant in a small town, the 1910s trains but toilettes, restaurant car and sleeping car also served passengers' needs. (In the beginning restaurant cars had no kitchens but food prepared at station restaurants was taken on board and served on trains. Then kitchens were set up in separate cars, and finally they were moved to separate parts of the restaurant cars.) Standard stations of the Hungarian State Railways Ltd. were built in a way that a restaurant could be set up inside or around the stations even in small towns. The restaurant buildings were owned by the state and tenders were called to find the proper lessee. Restaurants at busy railway stations turned out to be real gold mines, local restaurateurs competed with each other for tenancy rights and in turn restaurants at or around railway stations - nicknamed "resti" in Hungarian - were often as