Centrál Kávéház, Budapest

Centrál Grand Cafe & Bar 1887 is a historic café, and its story is inseparable from Budapest’s literary life. It opened in 1887 on the ground floor of a newly built apartment house, designed by architect Zsigmond Quittner. Róbert Scholz handled the ceilings and walls' ornamentation, while the café offered a coffee kitchen, a cloakroom, eight rooms and two rooms for games.

For its era, it offered strikingly advanced comforts: electric lighting, mechanical ventilation and central heating. Its flourishing period began in 1905 under Győző Mészáros. Writers gathered here around the tables of A Hét and Nyugat; from 1908, Nyugat’s authors met every Tuesday.

Women writers held Wednesday gatherings in the 1930s and established the Margit Kaffka Society in 1936. The most poignant story belongs to Frigyes Karinthy. Between 1934 and 1938, he recognised the early signs of a serious illness here.

After his operation, he drafted parts of A Journey Round My Skull at this café. Centrál became an espresso bar after the Second World War and closed in 1949, then passed through several unrelated uses. Restoration brought it back as a café in 2000; after another renovation, it reopened in 2022 with literary touches in the interior and dishes inspired by writers.