A quick bit of advice to anyone pondering opening a store that exclusively stocks pálinka or a restaurant with a similarly obsessive devotion to fruit brandy: it probably won’t work. Over the last few months I have seen several such attempts to capitalize on Hungary’s favorite distillate come to tears. First, the pálinka shop around the corner from our offices (top) quietly went bust, to be replaced by a sad-looking vegetable shop. Meanwhile, a restaurant/café on Nádor utca in District V called the “Pálinka Bistro” is currently being replaced by a high-end coffee shop (middle). The good news is that, from the pic on the bottom, it looks like someone may have found an altogether new use for the high-proof stuff.
