The Múzeum Café and Restaurant, located on the corner of Múzeum Boulevard and Bródy Sándor Street, operated until 2020. In February of this year, the Józsefváros Local Government announced a tender to select a new tenant, the results of which have now been made public.
The Schodl Café opened in the building in 1876, and has been known as the Múzeum Café and Restaurant since 1885. The interior, decorated with frescoes by Károly Lotz and now protected, is not only of architectural value, but was also a former haunt of renowned writers such as Gyula Krúdy, Attila József, Zsigmond Móricz, and Gyula Illyés, among others.
The café changed hands several times over the decades, and Covid finally made it impossible to continue operating. In February 2025, the Józsefváros Local Government issued a call for tenders for the lease with the stipulation that the premises could only be used for catering activities, while preserving the original atmosphere.
The local government selected CNTRL Kft. as the winner of the tender, with a 15-year lease agreement. The business also owns the Centrál Kávéház és Étterem (Central Café and Restaurant).
Renovation work will begin soon, with the opening planned for the second half of spring 2026, reported We Love Budapest.
Fact
Coffee culture was thriving in Budapest from around the early 1910’s until the beginning of the 1930’s. In this period around 500 cafés were operating around the city. They served as common meeting spots of talented writers, poets and artists. Some of them spent most of the day in their favorite place, musing or writing at their regular tables. Ink and paper were free for them and they could eat the “writer’s menu” (bread, cheese and cold cuts) at an affordable price. Besides artists, ordinary people also popped in for a cup a coffee on Sunday afternoons. Coffee houses were a home to vivid cultural life. If you had wanted to know the latest news and gossip in town you would just have to sit in one of these grand cafés. In recent years many, once-impressive places have been restored to their original splendor and try to revive the once mesmerizing coffee culture of Budapest.
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Via turizmus.hu; Featured image: Fortepan / Bauer Sándor
The post One of Budapest’s Oldest Cafés Reopens appeared first on Hungary Today.
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