Grand Café feeling of life - Centrál Kávéház

Central Grand Cafe & Bar Grand Café feeling of life

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Feeling the Grand Café

Proud to share with the World, together with our guests we continue writing the story of one of the most remarkable classics of Budapest: Central Grand Café. Once again, we are elevating it into a well-known and adored place for all lively people for those who are looking to live life, and for the whole world to mark it as a “must visit” destination.

Introduction

We are working with the bold and progressive spirit that has always defined Central, preserving and honoring the values of the flowering historical age. Now we offer a social Grand Café experience to the people of the present-day, with delightful flavors and inspiring atmosphere. We believe that the spirit and classical values of Central should be cherished as a heritage, to harmonize with the guests of today, the expectations of the modern age. A modern classic. Since 1887.

The Grand Café is the queen of coffeehouses, a gigantic space, where the big windows, the tall ceiling height, mirrors, chandeliers, and decorative interior really brings back the upper-middle class milieu.

Besides the comfortable sofas, the glistening hardwood floor and the classic marble tables, uniquely designed elements, plant life and exciting interior design characterizes Central Grand Café now. The coffeehouse has been one of the most important literary cafés during the turn of the century. The establishment, founded in 1887, has gone through several reconstructions in the historical building standing on the corner of Károlyi Mihály Street and Irányi Street, however it is like Paris: it is rocked by the waves, but does not sink. Moderately elegant, easy setting in the center of the city, radiating a lively atmosphere. A real Grand Café where we can drop in at really any time of the day, sit behind the giant glass windows or in nice weather on the terrace of an unmatched ambience, in case of a family brunch, an afternoon coffee and dessert, or wanting to enjoy the bubbly bar-life.

What does Central Grand Café offer?

The Grand Café feeling. We do not make haste, do not fret and not let our lives pass without a meaning. We want to savor our moments that we can share with others as we like. We stand in the middle of this feeling, while we absolutely know that one shouldn’t take everything so seriously, especially not ourselves. That it feels good to just laze and eat breakfast at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Why? Because that’s what we feel like. How different it is to negotiate next to a cup of splendid coffee, as the room is filled with pleasant music, than sitting in an office, surrounded by bare walls. Sometimes we can allow ourselves to get out of the clamp. And when that happens, this coffeehouse awaits us with its giant windows, impressive doorway, amazing atmosphere and ceiling height, tall mirrors, exceedingly elegant decorations, unique terrace and it is tempting us to let go all of the stress and although we keep doing what we have to do, we do it in a way that in the meantime we enjoy our opportunities as well. We should dare to let ourselves ponder, observing the crowd flowing by us, from which we can step out, even if it’s just for a lemonade, because we want to stop and see the beautiful, living gifts of today. Be a part of our own moments.

The “I’m outside, I’m inside feeling.” As soon as the weather makes it possible, we raise the huge window panels and open the building towards the terraces, so that the fresh air can flow through while we lose ourselves in the selection of wonderful foods and drinks, our social life and the gastronomical delights.

All-day breakfast. Why couldn’t one ask for a course from the wide selection of egg Benedicts for dinner? Who tells us that we can only eat breakfast-foods in the morning? Certainly not us, so our guests can consume anything they like anytime they like. For us, this is the meaning of a Grand Café brunch. Enjoy life and the moment – and we offer everything you need for that.

Solely eggs Benedict menu, unmatched in Hungary. Oh yes, this is the typical and iconic dish of Grand Cafés. Usually eaten for breakfast, but no one set this in law. Which couldn’t be possible anyways as its “invention” is connected to a – according to the rumors slightly bohemian – American stockbroker and we can describe this lifestyle with everything, besides waking early. Or if we can, only with a hangover. So our protagonist, Lemuel Benedict, has been very desperate to find a cure for the previously mentioned hangover in 1894, and in a hotel he ordered “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise”. The harmony of ingredients fascinated Oscar Tschirky, the maître d’hôtel, so much that he put it on the breakfast- and lunch menu, but he replaced the bacon with ham and the toast with an English muffin. This is how 7 different versions of eggs Benedict made it to Central’s menu, one arabic with aubergines, one with a french flavor, or even with some steak or our home made shakshuka.

Lavish Grand Café cocktail offer. Vermouths, spritzes, bubbles await you if you are open to the new and don’t plan on driving afterwards.

Strong, Grand Café drink offer. Central offers everything our guests are entitled to expect from a historical coffeehouse. All the classic coffee specialities, naturally with various plant-based milks, hot chocolates, extra teas and – paying respect to progressivity – lemonade, fresh juice and smoothie variations.

Unique coffees. Our barista creates the most excellent and most special coffees for our guests, from now on for example with a wide range of cold brews. Refreshment is guaranteed, the taste is unforgettable.

Wondrous messages with the coffees. Every cup of coffee comes with a short quote, this way besides the culinary delights we cherish our intellectual heritage as well. Attila József, Endre Ady, Dezső Kosztolányi, Ferenc Móra, Ádám Nádasdy, the Queen, David Bowie and Whitney Houston all speak to us through these short quotes.

Grand Café classics in an astonishing form. Mushroom Stroganoff made out of three types of mushrooms, Boeuf Bourguignon, Club sandwich, Bruschetta, Burrata? Why not? Try it and you’ll see.

Spectacular desserts. Burns, flows, melts and besides all these, it also sweeps you off your feet. Not only tasty and a real bomb of flavors, it also looks absolutely gorgeous.

8 hours of live music every day. Every day between 10 am and 2pm, as well as between 6pm and 10 pm, live music entertains our guests. This is usually piano, piano and violin duo, or piano and viola duo.

Stress-free environment. The café area is available all day, it is quite normal to drop in just for a coffee or hot chocolate, or a remarkable Central dessert. Here one can set up a meeting with friends, a business meeting or just sit down with a laptop and work.

The present and last two years of Central Grand Café

Since the 2022 reopening Central gradually won back the sympathy of the public of Budapest and also became an important, bucket-list destination in the eyes of tourists as well. It operates as a real Grand Café, gets filled with life as soon as between 9 am and 10 am, this is the time when the ones looking for breakfast, a coffee or a nice conversation arrive. Between 10 am and 2 pm live music entertains our guests and the afternoon fills with the smell of snacks, pastries and coffees, along with the sounds of pleasant clinking of tableware. Between 6 pm and 10 pm live music starts again and the 137 years old icon of Budapest turns into a fine dinner-place once again. Central is serving the exact purpose today as it did when it was founded: the center of social life, personal get-togethers and historical time travels.

In the last 2 years we have composed one of the most intimate downtown terraces, filled with live plants, small lights, decorations. We have opened the gigantic portal-windows, creating the “I’m outside, I’m inside” feeling. Today Central is an immense downtown terrace the same way it is a historical time travel. A significant element of this is the live music filling the walls of the café between 10 am – 2 pm as well as 6 pm – 10 pm.

The guests of Central

Central has always been a frequently visited social space, in the last 130 years, countless celebrities, authors, poets, musicians have been our guests here. Many of them have been members of the intellectual and cultural elite of our country, several of them celebrated progressive thinkers. Central Grand Café is for everyone: old, young, Hungarian, foreigner, worker, or one getting lost in a friendly conversation. Central Grand Café has never been luxury, more like a giant living-room, meeting- and conversational place in the lives of thinkers of the ages, where every social class could find its own selection and place.

Feeling the Grand Café

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