New hotel gives tourists a sample of the "Budapester" life

One of the newest additions to Budapest's hotel scene, Gerlóczy Rooms de Lux sits atop the famously "Parisian" Gerlóczy Kávéház. But despite any coveted Francophile associations, the management's goal is to ensure all guests at the 15-room boutique hotel taste and see life as a Budapester, says marketing manager Krisztina Riho.

(Top) Monika Jones, (bottom) courtesy

The history building housing Gerlóczy Rooms de Lux and its adjoining café (top) and the view up the ornamental staircase leading to the recently-opened hotel.

The late 19th-century brick and plaster masterpiece that juts out onto a little square near Deák tér is flanked by Budapest's City Hall. Meanwhile, a statue of Károly Gerlóczy, the onetime deputy mayor of Budapest and namesake of the hotel, restaurant and adjacent street, is a firmly planted centerpiece in the middle of the square.

Mónika Matolcsi, one of the three co-owners of both the café and hotel - another is Tamás Nagy, a culinary trend-setter who opened Hungary's first gourmet cheese shop around the corner - worked with graphic designer Péter Flanek to add whimsical details to her otherwise sleek design. The four floors of the hotel are each characterized by a dominant color: gray, blue, red, green, with complementary bathroom tiling, bedding, paint and hardwood. Flat screen televisions and well-stocked mini-bars remind one of international hotel standards, while wooden window frames and little frogs and dragonflies on the bathroom window frosting ensure the rooms that go for €85 a night aren't prosaic.

To the eye, Gerlóczy Kávéház and Rooms de Lux could never be boring. That's in part thanks to a gigantic elm tree that envelops the building in a proverbial hug. In the springtime, white blossoms waif over the patio and wrought iron balconies in a petal snow, while the heat of the summertime is moderated by thick green leaves.

Even if you don't sleep over, sneak a peak of the stunning red and white circular skylight that crowns the spiral staircase leading up to the rooms, which guests will trickle down on during their morning walk to breakfast in the kávéház, where the city's current mayor, Gábor Demszky, is said to drop by regularly for coffee. (An elevator will be available starting next month.)

If the walls could speak, the Gerlóczy Hotel might have some raunchy stories to tell. But the juicy history of the first café/bar in the building - an alleged "Gerlóczy Gentleman's Club" dating to 1908 - may have been lost to time. Before being reopened in 2005 by the current owners, the café had been a more banal bank.

For anyone stopping by the city for a few days, the hotel will make an appealing springboard for exploring Budapest. And given the location and history, it's well positioned to give tourists a sample of what the owners hoped for in the first place: the Budapester life.

• Email
• Save to My Caboodle