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

Bambi

Where did it get its name from? Was it from Felix Salten’s story, or from the unforgettable soft drink of the fifties?

Few interiors dating back to the sixties have remained so untouched: a fairy-tale ceramic city on the wall, ceramic turrets, only the story-teller with the deep-throated, caressing voice is missing. Instead there is the click-clack of dominoes and an old lady from the last century, pondering the changes time has wrought. Red leatherette seats, mosaic flooring, geometric box-shelves — everything in a complete unity of style. Massive doses of exhaust fumes blend with the sunlight on the terrace. The bleakness and angularity of the interior accustoms one to joys of Eastern Europe’s Mitropa-style. A neon sign proclaiming it a historic monument should be ordered and put up directly.

2 FRANKEL LEÓ ÜT, II.

BAMBI, the standard by which others must be judged

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