With So Many Cafés, Which One Do You Prefer?

📍 Budapest · 👁 1506 reads

Generally, places where celebrities have set foot, whether their birthplace, former residence, workplace, or place of study, even if just for a cup of coffee, can become tourist attractions, now known as internet-famous check-in spots. That’s the celebrity effect! Among them, cafés are places many celebrities are willing to visit, because they are social venues where they seek creative inspiration and immerse their souls. Hence, such cafés rise to fame and become sites for future generations to trace their footsteps.

Over the years, I have visited, passed by, and had coffee in many cafés during my travels. I’ll introduce them to everyone; if you happen to travel to those places, you might drop by and see if you can find your true love.

New York Café is located on Erzsébet körút in Budapest. Its hall combines Italian Renaissance and Baroque eclectic styles, magnificent with carved beams and painted rafters. The walls and columns use soft white marble pillars, paired with large floor-to-ceiling windows, white-gold reliefs, and crystal chandeliers, resembling a palace. Violin and piano performances in the orchestra pit add a serene and elegant atmosphere to the entire café. Outside the door, 16 devil-shaped lamps add a touch of playfulness and fun.

New York Café was the most beautiful and most popular café among locals in 20th-century Budapest. It is part of the New York Palace, one of Budapest’s most famous hotels. It opened during the glorious era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is said that on the opening day, the owner threw the front door key into the Danube River in public, declaring that the café would never close, and promised to provide many benefits and services to poor artists. Since its opening in 1894, New York Café has become the social center of Budapest, visited by many European musicians, painters, writers, poets, politicians, and celebrities from all walks of life. A legend even circulated that during World War II, if a letter addressed to Europe only said “New York,” it would be delivered to New York Café. Today, many tourists regard it as an important stop, enjoying a leisurely time in such a luxurious, palace-like café—truly one of the best memories of a trip.

Global travel magazines have once promoted the “World’s Most Beautiful Café,” the New York Café in Budapest. This ancient café, opened in 1894, has a history of over a hundred years. During World War I, it was already the cultural center of Budapest, frequented by many famous poets and writers.

This café is also known as “Les Deux Magots,” which is well-deservedly considered a cultural hotspot in Paris, intertwining reputation and tradition. It is located in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district of the Latin Quarter on the left bank of the Seine. Actually, “Les Deux Magots” or “the café of the two ugly Chinese figurines” refers to the two carved Chinese statues dressed in Qing dynasty costumes on the wall. Originally, this place was not a café but a silk shop run by two Chinese people who brought silk to Paris, making them the symbol and landmark of the building. They have become a kind of strategy for the café, using the mysterious Eastern culture as a banner to attract literary and artistic enthusiasts. Les Deux Magots truly lived up to those two figurines; it is a famous writers’ café on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. Even in places like Saint-Germain-des-Prés square, where many renowned cafés gather, top-tier cafés like Les Deux Magots are rare.

Les Deux Magots has appeared in the 1973 film *The Mother and the Whore*, the 1959 film *Le Signe du Lion*, and the 2014 films *Pas Son Genre* and *Intouchables*.

Since 1933, Les Deux Magots has awarded the Prix des Deux Magots every year to honor outstanding French novels.

Simone de Beauvoir, the famous French existentialist writer and one of the founders of the feminist movement, often visited here with her partner Jean-Paul Sartre. Picasso fell in love at first sight with Dora Maar here. Celebrities of the time such as Wilde, Ernst, Picasso, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Saint-Exupéry, Hemingway, and Umberto Eco were all regulars. They were attracted by “Les Deux Magots” and also added a legendary chapter to its worldwide fame.

Bad Ischl is a spa town in Austria, located in the center of the Salzkammergut region south of Upper Austria, along the Traun River. It gained fame because Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary chose to build his summer residence here. On August 19, 1853, Franz Joseph and Princess Sissi held their engagement ceremony here. In 1854, the emperor’s mother, Archduchess Sophie, gave the Imperial Villa to him as a wedding gift. The villa became the imperial family’s summer residence; Franz Joseph called it “a paradise on earth.” Many scenes from the movie *Sissi* were filmed here.

Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife formed a deep bond with this small town, spending every summer here to escape the heat and hunt on the nearby hills. From 1854 to 1914, for decades, Bad Ischl was designated as the second capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and rose to the top of European high-society resorts.

Konditorei Zauner is the most famous pastry shop in the town.

Emperor Franz Joseph and Princess Sissi frequently visited this place.

Brussels [Café de l’Amitié / Swan Café]

The Swan Café was a place where the proletarian revolutionary mentors Marx and Engels once lived and worked. It is located on one side of the Grand Place in central Brussels, adjacent to the famous City Hall.

In February 1845, Marx moved from Paris to Brussels and lived here. In April of the same year, Engels also came here. From then on, the Swan Café became an important venue for them to establish the Communist Correspondence Committee and the German Workers’ Association. During this period, Marx wrote famous works such as *The Poverty of Philosophy* and *The Communist Manifesto*. The “Communist Correspondence Committee” and the “German Workers’ Association” were also born here.

Casablanca [Rick’s Café]

Rick’s Café is a restaurant built after the café in the 1942 film *Casablanca*. It is located in Casablanca, Morocco.

Rick’s Café was opened in 2004 by an American diplomat to Morocco named Kathy Kriger. Kathy Kriger was a huge fan of the movie *Casablanca*, so she decided to buy an old building at the foot of Casablanca’s medina and transform it into a replica of the movie set. To create a café that resembled the movie scene, Kathy Kriger spent all her savings and took two years to design and decorate the premises, personally collecting a large number of traditional North African decorations and ornaments. This gives the café both a Western cultural atmosphere and a Moroccan style, perfectly blending into the surrounding bustling city and ancient town.

Due to the immense influence of the movie *Casablanca*, tourists from all over the world visiting Morocco consider checking in at Rick’s Café a must-do item. This café is not only a tourist attraction but also a place offering Mediterranean cuisine, with late opening hours suitable for customers who enjoy late-night dining.

Travel Log Directory

1. Budapest [New York Café]

2. Paris [Les Deux Magots]

3. Bad Ischl [Konditorei Zauner]

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