Gábor Eszter: Andrássy Avenue – Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)
Izabella utca (No. 70 Andrássy út) deserves special mention on account of the fact that the Lukács Café operates in it. What gave birth to the establishment on a staggered floor in the first place was a reconstruction. Its wing facing Andrássy út on street level is an outstanding achievement of the interior decoration of the 1910s due to its carved wooden panelling. It marks the borderline between late Art Nouveau and early Art Deco. The room towards Izabella utca is on a raised level connecting the row of rooms on the ground floor to what were the original business premises. With its interior the place is reminiscent of the elegant late Historicist private apartments of earlier decades. In the mid-1990s the building was renovated by C1B Bank, which also pledged to preserve the interior of the café, which was under protection as a historical monument. The bank may not have been entirely serious about the promise it had made, as it led traffic to its own entrance through the café ’s room giving on Andrássy út. Although the wooden panelling was restored, the unity of the interior design was gone, its counters removed at best or possibly even destroyed. There is no knowing whether the original furniture can still be reconstructed when the bank goes out of operation. Most of the upper room, however, has survived in its original form. On the corner of Andrássy út and Rózsa utca at No. 78 there is a curious mansion without a gate, designed by Adolf Feszty in 1878 for Count Aurél Dessewffy (1846—1928), an aristocrat who took an active interest in the nation’s economy ■ The Dei&ewity Manóién (No. 78 Andratty út) 37
