Kelet Kávézó és Galéria

Tibor Timár opened Kelet Kávézó és Galéria in 2013 after winning a cultural grant tied to the redevelopment of Bartók Béla út, a street he had lived along for years. The space had cycled through a bakery called Bartók and then Szonáta, one of Budapest's last piano bars, before Timár filled the two level room with something close to five thousand books, meant to be read, borrowed, traded, and given away rather than treated as decor.

A La Marzocco FB80 pulls the espresso, and the counter also runs batch brew, cezve, cold brew, and Kalita Wave alongside bags of beans for sale and Chinese and Japanese loose leaf teas. A Dutch chef named Tom built the kitchen around Hungarian and Eastern cooking side by side, its best known dish a grilled peanut butter sandwich seasoned with curry and arugula. Sidewalk tables spill out under the awning by day, monthly art shows rotate through the gallery walls, and a recurring Kelet Kult series turns the room into a casual venue for science talks after hours.