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

Haladás (progress)

In the windswept section of Bartók Béla út, this little café valiantly braves the reaction on the rise everywhere, a symbol of Progress.

Its tunnel like premises resemble a Hungarian-Bulgarian— (Jkranian workers’ hostel. The atmosphere is of the “Dream on, princess” crooning kind. On the walls where not long ago Pesti Napló and Est were hung, a wine-card dangles, offering Badacsony wines. The clacking of the Crazy Lizard slot-machine cuts into drawn-out sighs that savour of the Nyírség. Then silence descends as the passages of the pianist lady lull the listeners into a sentimental mood.

76 BARTÓK BÉLA ÜT, XI.

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