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

Déryné (mrs déry)

A café disguised as a tea-shop in the heart of Krisztinaváros. You can still buy cream puffs at the recherché counters of the former Auguszt, though this is no longer a typical order. A theatrical half-light reigns in the dark claret interior, softened by bracket-lamps. Curtained-off nooks harbour forsaken, forgotten unmarried mothers and disillusioned activists. In the back recesses hushed voices debate small enterprise, reflexology and Lonely Hearts Clubs. In the evenings live music rock-a-byes you into a late-night listener’s requests mood. A silver-haired, spruce gentleman plays bitter-sweet hits on a light-spattered saxophone while his companion tinkles softly on the piano. Cuddling couples sometimes grow dim and fade, flashing through time and space. Déryné is a dainty porcelaine figurine steeped in cigarette smoke from Auntie Hilda’s glass cabinet.

3 KRISZTINA TÉR, 1.

DÉRYNÉ, the former AUGUSZT

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