Bodor Ferenc: Coffee-Houses - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1992)

Terv (plan)

In Nádor utca bright red neon letters recall with revolutionary commitment the period of Central Planning. The name of this café should be protected by law: it should be given protection, like Chippendale for furniture. The old holding companies and former national companies in the neighbourhood are all undergoing a process of transformation. Brass plates are multiplying in this part of the city, heralding firms and agencies into which capital flowes or dribbles. The old trustworthy comrades with their three-button suits and cotton undervests under drip-dry shirts have disappeared, together with their secretaries, lubricated with cognac. The xeroxed copies of itemized statements have also disappeared, off the tables, and the legend saying: ‘Here we raised... Here we completed.. are showing signs of wear and tear. Yet the vaulted doorways, painted brown, could just as well call to mind the reform era. Instead, a chirping, clacking one-armed bandit ticks away in the corner, a red light flashing sweeping circles on top, casting beams of light of Polish customers. Tinfoil and bottles gleam between the curved shelves. On the walls, between red and yellow lampshades, paintings for sale are hung. We manage to sell quite a few, says the pretty waitress. The back comer is strewn with estimated costs like a horde of ants dredged with DDT. Outside, reprivatization had begun, at a sober pace, in keeping with party programs.

19 NÁDOR ÜTCA, V.