2nd stop, instead of Sissi Kávéház és söröző: Green Caffe and bar – A 90’s confectionerey on the carnival of pubs

(2nd stop, 2nd Budapest stop after 4 visit )

The story of the actual first day of my pub crawl continues.

On the first day of my continuous pub crawl I dropped into the Sissi kávéház és söröző (Sissi coffeehouse and brasserie) as second stop, in an even outer part of the Seventh District. This name was advertised on a big name plate, even though it is not called Sissi anymore for ca. 3 years, but Green Caffe and Bar. Removing the old name plat would be kind of problematic, so they kept it. In my opinion this classic style decoration fits the venue very well, I vote for keeping it. This store has even a longer past, before Sissi. Once it was a Douwe Egberts (dutch coffee type – for many years the only big coffee trademark in Hungary) sample shop. The management gave the current name after the conspicuous green counter.

I was thinking of more complex background concepts, like environmental protection or health awareness in vain. By the way there are a lot of green elements there: chairs, wallpaper stripes, plants.

One of the members of the barkeeper family – who runs a coffee and bar island in a close small mall, in the same colors – likes this bright green a lot and uses it intentionally.

It is a spacious, “L” shaped premise, with six comfy bar chairs at the quite long counter. Few guests are always to be found on those chairs. One day I heard a funny conversation there.
-You come here sometimes for a drink, too, don’t you?
-I was just passing by, and the wind blew me in…

In the summertime they have a quite busy pleasant terrace with remarkable not green but yellow sunshades, but the artificial grass is green below. This is a good pick, because a good bar terrace has been rare in this area so far. By my first visit in October, my job still paid me company in the phone. I was drinking a Madarasi pálinka and tap water combination with slow sips to my health and I was looking around while having the phone conversation. There were two middle aged woman talking silently on purpose. In the other direction a mixed company of Hungarians and foreigner colleagues was chatting about the previous and upcoming working days.

On the left from the counter we can see on a picture in a rough pink frame how Marilyn Monroe’s skirt is blown up by the wind. By turning around from the counter we can see how the ladys’ skirts are blown up by the wind in the bus stop. The pub has an intense relationship with this bus stop. In the time of the UFEA some people watched some parts of the game from there, others just ran in to check closer how their team is progressing. But anyhow even on usual days, I can see people sharing few words with a guest friend inside and go further with the next bus. 

I personally like this place, even after seeing so many other pubs, because it definitely fits the its purpose. This is a cozy and friendly bar.

If it would be in a more crowded area, it would be even more lively, because I see that the concept is good, but I’ve never found it yet completely full with guests. Even though it is perfect for bigger companies and for conversations of two. There is table soccer, two TV-s for sport broadcasting, their coffee is fine and in addition their biggest hit: the insides are kind of unique. The only place it reminds me is a confectionery called Zsuzsanna in District Thirteen. Here the floor, the wallpaper stripes, the marvel-like wall paper surrounding the counter is like the whole pub would be dressed up as an early 90’s confectionery at Lake Balaton on the carnival of the pubs. I like it a lot.

It is simply good to spend time here, the size is still comfy and the guests are from all kinds and ages. For pub food there is grilled sandwich and even more: pizza from a real pizzeria, the pizza crust is frozen and they bake it here in a furnace. That’s kind of magnificent. I only would extend the variety of drinks. The basics are completely available, but some remarkable specialities available only here and some special beers would be better and they could call it a day for real. Their prices are friendly, but so liquor store cheap, so there is no danger to meet any type of guest below a certain level.

After Sissi / Green bar, I decided, that this will be a tour, not only a cure. And this is how I actually started my continous pub crawl series. That day’s third stop, the Vezér is the place where few months ago I first thought to put together once a collection about the best small pubs of Budapest and Hungary, or even the world.

On this first day I visited so many places, which I only preceded once on my tour: 11 pubs. All the other times I wasn’t even close to this. At every place I had a pálinka, smallest possible with a glass of water. On the next day, I didn’t had any hangover, and didn’t had the flu anymore either. The “hat cure” has worked, the pub crawl has started, but after this point I continued with spritzer instead of pálinka!

The boring bottom:

Opening hours: 8:00-00:00

Service: At the counter

Beers on tap: Arany Ászok, Dreher

Pálinka: Madarasi

The wine of the house: Varga

Petfriendly

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/green.bar.caffe/?fref=ts

Address: 1078, Budapest, István utca 21.