ArtÉr Kávézó

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As this week's deadline approaches, I find myself a couple hundred kilometers out from the nearest Budapestian coffee house. How like me to run away from responsibility, I hear myself saying. As I get into my usual daily routine of beating myself up, though, an uncharacteristic spark of initiative strikes me: they must have coffee in Pécs somewhere. Dammit, I say to myself, now I thought of that, I'll have to get out of my bed and take part in whatever silly antics it takes to get a coffee around here, and I'll still just end up feeling inexplicably guilty.

So this week, Kind Reader, you will be reading about ArtÉr, a coffee house in the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter that was established as the centerpiece of the 2010 European Cultural Capitol project, and opened up to the public by as soon as 2012, in true Hungarian form. The place, essentially the bar of the downstairs gallery in the main building, is still all shiny and new on account of an utter lack of patronage, is my guess. Perfect, I hear you saying, my Reader, no people to talk to means I'll be completely defenseless against the pull of the void in my soul.

With some expo or whatever going on in the gallery section of the place, and absolutely no one besides me in the drinks part, I feel hopelessly out of joint. And especially since everyone else seems to have a rapport with the waiter while my service is almost insultingly detached, every sense I have is telling me that I'm not just in the way, I'm not even welcome. As it turns out, the emptiness inside me is perfectly illustrated by the emptiness without. I order my coffee and curl up in the tightest corner I can find, and I still feel crushed by dead space.

They bring the milk in a separate jug, not one of those plastic creamer shots, although the sugar is doled out in packs, so I guess that's half a point for effort. I uncurl a bit after the first sip, hoping to see my aching darkness diluted just as the blackness of the coffee turns muddy brown. Decent stuff. Also, it was cheap.

And that's all I need for this post, thank God. I drink my coffee in one go and flee this haunting place of so-called business, and I vow never again to leave the comforting distraction of Budapest's bustle. Today we learned that excruciatingly public shame is preferable to being left alone with myself. 

ArtÉr Kávézó (7630 Pécs, Zsolnay Vilmos út 37.)
Coffee: 7/10
Decor: 5/10

Prices (Ft)
Coffee: 280.-