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The golden age
The golden age
Central Café opened in 1887 in the house of Lajos Erényi Ullmann. The architectural plans had been made by Zsigmond Quittner. The café itself was located on the ground floor of the house, and consisted of eight rooms, two game rooms, a coffee kitchen and a cloakroom. The ceilings and walls had been decorated by Róbert Scholtz. Its founder was the coffee merchant Seemann, who had furnished the café for his son-in-law Frankl. The next owner, Gusztáv Grüneck, had taken over the café in 1900, and he was followed by his son-in-law Győző Mészáros in 1905. This had been the café’s heyday, and the café had been considered one of the centers of intellectual life in Pest.
One of the most important traditions of the old Central Café, apart from the famous cuisine, had been the intellectual character of the café, the vibrant intellectual life, since once it had been the home and café haunt of painters, architects, sculptors, journalists, theater people, photographers, musicians, art historians, doctors, university professors, and so on. In today’s terms, Central had been the knowledge and information center of its time.
From 1905 Győző Mészáros had taken over the management of the café, and he had placed great emphasis on the café's intellectual life. This had been the heyday of the café. Around Central Café’s Scholar Table had debated the linguist Zoltán Gombocz, the art historian Sándor Eckhardt, the historians Gyula Szekfű and Bálint Hóman among others. József Kiss had edited the newspaper A Hét around the famous Round Table of Central Café, and the literary Nyugat had started, and in 1920 had returned from the New York Café. Its regulars had been Ady, Karinthy, Móricz, Babits, Osvát, Kosztolányi, Krúdy, Ignotus, Lőrinc Szabó, Árpád Tóth, Margit Kaffka, and later Gyula Illyés, Áron Tamási, Péter Veres – to name just a few of the great intellectual minds of that time. Between 1940 and 1944, the literary and social sciences circle of friends of the Bólyai Academy with Sándor Püski and Géza Féja had been active in Central.
After World War II, the first literary journal – the Újhold – had been edited in Central, and the regulars of the café included Ágnes Nemes Nagy, Pilinszky, Magda Szabó, Iván Mándy, Örkény, Ottlik, Hubay, Gábor Devecseri, György Somlyó. An important organizing principle to understand these decades is that the editorial staff of the A Hét and the Nyugat had represented the progressive, development- and Western-oriented thinkers, writers, and poets of the time, so truly modern ideas had been conceived between the historical walls and beside the great café culture.
Famous guests
The first significant event had been the moment when József Kiss moved his Round Table and the editorial office of the newly founded A Hét from the Korona on Váci Street to Central. The majority of the articles had been written here, and the freshly completed articles had been sent to the Athenaeum printing house. A group of younger writers of A Hét had founded the Nyugat which represented new ideas and a new voice. All the cafés in the capital subscribed to the A Hét. The members of József Kiss’s Round Table included, among others, Kálmán Mikszáth, Géza Gárdonyi, Ignotus, Jenő Heltai, Gyula Krúdy, Ferenc Molnár.
Central had become an intellectual center and a haunt for writers of the Nyugat. The paper had a table for regulars two times here. The first had been from 1908 on, when it had been founded, and the editorial staff had gathered on a daily basis for 8 years. The writers of The Nyugat met for the ’Nyugat-party every Tuesday, and on Wednesdays the women writers had held their meetings here. Regulars in these events had been Endre Ady, Dezső Kosztolányi, Frigyes Karinthy, Ferenc Molnár, Jenő Heltai, Ernő Osvát, Aladár Schöpflin, Oszkár Gellért, Mihály Babits. Permanent guests of the second table for regulars had been Árpád Tóth, Zsigmond Móricz,
Ernő Szép, Miklós Surányi, Lajos Nagy, Aurél Kárpáti, Lőrinc Szabó, who ’ had been always writing over his coffee’, and for a while Attila József as well. Although Dezső Szabó had always despised those who belonged to the Nyugat, in the 1920s had a separate table under the name Táltos, until 1925, when he moved his headquarters to Philadelphia in Buda.
Distinguished guest of the café had been Frigyes Karinthy who, after moving from Buda to Pest had moved his headquarters from Hadik to Central. Between 1934 and 1938, he had spent many of his afternoons here. He noticed the first symptoms of his fatal illness here, and after his surgery he wrote the first sketches of his A Journey Round My Skull. The young Géza Ottlik had often shown up at Karinthy’s table.
The Rise of the Cafés
In the old Pest, like in many densely populated European cities, there had been a constant housing shortage; by today’s standards, people lived in overwhelmingly poor conditions, and the density of population among the poor had reached unbelievable proportions. Lighting had been expensive, therefore people huddled in the dark or by the light of oil or kerosene lamps. From the mid-19th century onwards, gas lighting had been introduced, but very slowly and very expensively, and many people had lit their homes with candles even then. In the majority of towns it had been hard to get fuel for the fire. At the beginning of the 20th century, there had been almost 500 cafés in the capital, which offered people with a wide variety of occupations an opportunity to talk to each other and discuss politics. (Noémi Saly literary and Budapest historian, author of local history writings)
1949-2000
After World War II, the café had been converted into a so-called espresso and had been closed in 1949. Then it had been taken by the National Company of the Pepper Centre, and from 1953 it had been used as a cultural center and a factory canteen by the Metro Construction Company. From 1965, the café had been run as a student club under the name of ELTE Eötvös-Club. From the remains of the equipment, the paneling and the staircase system, the balustrades, the columns, the chandeliers and the wall lamps had been declared to be protected. A marble plaque commemorated the famous guests. In the 1970s and 1980s, it had been a popular meeting place and club for university students. Unfortunately, the marble plaques had disappeared and the protected equipment is no longer known. In 1993, the
2000-2018
EVENTREND GROUP
In November 2021, the 30-year-old group announced that it would take over the operation of Central, considered the oldest café in Budapest, from the Özyer Group. Thereby Eventrend has taken over the operation of the second literary café in Budapest. The lease contract was signed by Eventrend Group and Özyer Group at a ceremony at Matild Palace. Emre Pasli, the Turkish businessman who led the negotiations, said: “I am handing over the keys of Central to a team with professional knowledge, 30 years of experience and a commitment not only in gastronomy but especially in the operation of historic cafés. I believe that we could not have found a better partner in Hungary today.”
The Eventrend acknowledges and appreciates the work and efforts of its predecessors in previous years. Representatives of the group believe that in the last 20 years the renewed Central Café has occurred as a truly iconic historical site in the public eye. As the founding owners of the group said: the agreement is a source of great pride and joy for the Eventrend Group. It gives the opportunity to play a role in the operation of a 135-year-old legend. Eventrend’s mission is to recreate the legend of the historic cafés of the turn of the century, and to make Budapest the capital of iconic cafés again, by bringing to life a chain of historic cafés and fulfilling the original aims of the founders.
The Eventrend Group has about 3 decades of experience in running not only cafés but also restaurants, hotels and in event management as well. About 20 gastronomic enterprises belong to the group, among others the Gundel Restaurant, the New York Café, the Spoon the boat, the Royal Guard Café, the Városliget Café, the Chef’s Table, the Symbol, the Groupama Aréna or the Müpa catering, as well as 5 rural hotels and 11 event venues. It is currently present in the restaurant market in Hungary and the Czech Republic.
