In the latest sign of the ongoing "gourmetization" of Budapest, Hungary's most Hungarian and God-fearing of grocery store chains CBA is set to open "elegant" food shops in some of the capital's most popular tourist destinations.

The company's entry into the more up-market tourist sector represents a departure from its traditional Hungarian roots of zacskós leves (soup in a bag) and frozen szilvásgombóc (plum dumplings). Founded after private investors bought a stake in Közért Vállalat, the former state supermarket monopoly, in 1992, CBA continues to brand itself as "The Hungarian Shopping Chain." Expansion of the domestic network began in 1996, and the first stores in other Central European countries (the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia) opened in 2001. The entire international network now comprises nearly 5,200 stores, with turnover for the franchise network of roughly €2 billion. Last year, CBA opened 52 new stores of its own, while an additional 22 others joined the franchise network. The newly-opened stores also include supermarkets, discount stores, small convenience stores and what are being called "exclusive" delicatessens.

According to Index.hu, the first of the fancy new shops is to slide open its doors in the city's Castle District in April, while the portal says the second will fire up its fridges in an unspecified downtown location by the end of the year. But we can now exclusively reveal that we inadvertently walked by what we assume is this "unspecified downtown location" while strolling through Pest's tourist gulag last week (see above pic). Appropriately enough, it's right across the street from the District V outpost of Lite Budapest, another local chain that is doing its best to make local and visiting gourmands feel at home.