Back to the Future at the (Red) Star of City Park

There are a lot of reasons to go to Pántlika, which sits behind Petőfi Csarnok in the Városliget. Foremost is that the weather is changing, and the City Park in the Zugló section of Budapest actually gets nicer as the leaves begin to turn. Pántlika has a spacious outdoor beer garden, not far from Széchenyi baths, but far away enough from most of the bustle around the zoo and the amusement park that it does not get the tourist traffic. But tourists shouldn’t overlook it, for Pántlika is a small, modest piece of history itself.

Once an information pavilion, constructed to pass out socialist propaganda pamphlets during an international 1970s trade exhibition, it is but one of two buildings that remain from the event (Petőfi Csarnok is the other). The red aluminum roof (the first in Hungary) with its radio-wave form, is supposed to resemble a red star from above, though it kind of looks like a miss-happen, abortive I-Hop, or the dwelling of some communist gnome, from the ground. Needless to say, it is wonderful, and one-of-a-kind.

You can put Pántlika in the same socialist nostalgia category as Marxim and Bambi Presszó, though, on their web-site, they prefer the hipper term retro. And retro it is, from the Marka and Traubi sodas, to the bright orange, bulbous lamps that are such a find on lomtalanítás nap (junk-clearance day). Even if you sit outside, check the décor in the small inside room: it is priceless.

As for the food, they claim to make the best bean soup in Budapest (Ft 780, about €3). I might agree, but I resist saying it out loud, because when you go there, you could very well end up being served a bowl of molten lard with lizard eyes peeking through the surface, keeping with the tradition that restaurants in Budapest offer about everything and anything these days, except consistency. But the bean soup I got – and hope to continue getting – was a super, less fatty version than you usually come across in your local lunch büfé. It was very creamy, with enough chunks of lean pork that it was satisfying as a stand-alone lunch. If you don’t like bean soup (how could you not like bean soup? We have ways of making you talk!) then there are various meat stews and other old-school paprika and fat-laden Hungarian canteen dishes to choose from.

If you try Pántlika, it is best enjoyed when dove-tailed with anther attraction: after a hot bath at Széchenyi, or better still, after hunting for artifacts in the wonderful flea market at Pecsa on weekends. You can’t miss the spot: it’s the building that looks like a 1950s space-age hot dog stand: half social-constructionist, half Jestsons whimsy. The place does appear ready to take off at any moment – get there before it does.