bthere: Inflight Magazine Brussels Airlines

Drink like a local in…
Budapest

Text Tabitha Lasley

For the past eight years, native New Yorker Erik D’Amato has made it his business to root out the best of Budapest’s alternative culture. Now he’s gone public. His website, pestiside.hu, lists the best-kept secrets in his adopted city. We pick four of his favourites…

Szóda Café
18 Wesselényi utca

Best for Keeping things low key. Unusually, the bar manages to maintain a relaxed atmosphere while drawing in a too-cool-for-school crowd – a supremely difficult double whammy to pull off, but somehow Szóda manages.

Drink Soda, as the name suggests – the bar serves it for free.

Do Hit the dance floor – it’s actively encouraged here.

Don’t Try too hard.

Szimpla Kert
14 Kazinczy utca

Best for Soaking up the city’s nascent underground scene – Budapest’s disused spaces (romkerts or ‘ruined gardens’) are rapidly being annexed and transformed into a new breed of guerrilla bar.

Drink Fröccs, a sort of Hungarian spritzer containing white wine and soda water.

Do Channel Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face. The bar’s a favourite with Budapest’s boho set.

Don’t Even attempt to book. If you want a seat, get here early.

Spoon
Opposite the Hotel InterContinental, 12-14 Apaczai Csere j.u

Best for Those who’ve got their sea legs – Spoon is housed in a docked three-deck boat.

Drink A Cuba Libre – cola, lime and dark rum.

Do Your level best to bag a seat on the deck. The bar is renowned for it’s fabulous views.

Don’t Forget to try the goose liver with cognac and apricot – it’s an Hungarian speciality.

Le Bar Royal
Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal, 43-49 Erzsébet körút

Best for Restrained evenings with a gaggle of girlfriends.

Drink Pear schnapps.

Do Run a comb through your hair – Szimpla Kert’s shabby chic simply won’t wash at the Corinthia.

Don’t Head here with a hen party. The discreetly glamorous surroundings lend themselves well to ladies’nights – but lady is the operative word here.

Cocktail corner

Mulled wine

Cold-weather drinking means turning away from the cool, crisp register that most fruit-based cocktails occupy and moving on to something altogether more gutsy. Step forward mulled wine.

First, pick a bitterly cold evening, then choose a robust red – a Rioja such as Cosme Palacio Tinto Crianza will will do. Pour two bottles in a large saucepan and gently heat with one orange stuck with cloves, two sliced lemons, two sliced oranges, six tablespoons honey, a cinnamon stick, two teaspoons of ground ginger and two tablespoons of Grand Marnier. Keep on a very low heat and allow the flavours to develop for 20 minutes, then serve while still hot.