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

Művész (artist)

The long-shattered lights of the anteworld gleam anew in the premises of the Művész on Andrássy út. The bracket-lamps and crystal chandeliers cast a middle-class glow over tourists slicing pastry and theatrical agents grown too old for work. The female bust folds its hands over its protuberances and seems to ask wonderingly where its lower half has disappeared to. The Ancient Monuments Act preserves ladies dropping in from old age; here everyone can retain the dusky freshness of the pages of Színházi Élet (Theatre Life, a magazine). The marbletopped tables retain the impression of opera-house gossip, the slightly threadbare pile carpet the imprint of the hand-made shoes of baritones. The pattern of the cane-back chairs blends with the patterns of English tweed. The glistening, caramel top of the layered round cakes reflect the Tátra-peaks aligned in soldierly ranks with a touristic sheen.

29 AMDRÁSSY ÚT, VI.

MŰVÉSZ— with meistersingers

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