See your own coffee being roasted at the Arch & Beans café, just opened at Astoria

With a huge space of 200 square metres and a towering height of four and a half metres, this roomy hangout is not only perfect for social distancing, but for finding much needed peace and privacy at the busy downtown crossroads of Astoria. Although there’s a great number of modern, atmospheric and cosy cafés in Budapest these days, it’s not easy to find one where you can comfortably stretch out your legs and enjoy your coffee without being bothered by the chatter of other guests.

Instead of a rigid, hall-like atmosphere, the airy layout of the café creates a relaxed feel, boosted by carefully selected furniture and décor. Before being taken over recently, the space hosted a bistro called Xo, whose interior featured a number of protected elements, such as the large mirror above the counter, original 150-year-old mosaic flooring and limestone columns. These parts of the design have been adopted by the new locale, but Arch & Beans has also implemented plenty of sleek changes.

Its semi-industrial retro vibe was created with second-hand industrial furniture by owner, Zoltán Lóránth, adding a nice twist to the elegant, New York café-style interior. Among others, the café displays an 80- to 100-year-old clamping table, a shelf created from a shoe tree from the Bonyhád shoe factory, laboratory chairs from chemical labs, military ammunition chests and street furniture lampshades from the GDR of the ’70s. The glass panels separating the tables were primarily installed because of the virus, rather than for the sake of design, but they adorn the charming visual world of the café perfectly.

The surrounding building is rich in history, currently belonging to ELTE University’s Faculty of Humanities, with its upstairs neighbour being the German department. In the 18th century, the one-storied building of the Arany Griff Inn was to be found at this spot, replaced by a three-storey hostel and residential building in 1867. Later it became the property of Frigyes Glück, an important figure of the Hungarian hotel and catering industry, who modernised and expanded the building as the Pannónia Hotel, the first in Budapest with electric lighting, and the second one equipped with a lift.

This is the second local café owned by Zoltán Lóránth. The first, Kávé Művek, opened at Mária tér in the heart of Buda in June 2019, and has powered through the pandemic quite well.

Without expecting floods of tourists any time soon, Zoltán conceived of the café with a mainly local crowd in mind. He ran a café and bakery in the home of specialty coffee, New Zealand, for five years, so we can safely say that he knows his way around new-wave trends – which is why he decided to take another route with Arch & Beans.


Due to the considerable size of the place, he didn’t want to limit the café’s target audience to coffee gourmets, but rather combine the features of Italian coffee with the unique qualities of specialty cafés. There are two main types of coffee in the grinders – one darker, the Astoria Espresso blend that is always available, and an ever-changing, lighter roasted single-origin variety, as well as an even lighter roast for filters.

Whether light or dark, the emphasis is on the quality of the coffee beans. Zoli has nothing to hide: there are two tons of coffee beans sat in the corner, while the whole process can be traced in a visual roaster separated by a glass wall, where the flawless grains are waiting to take their turn in the barrel. The machine has a capacity of 12kg – by comparison, its large industrial counterparts have a minimum capacity of 150kg.

The sandwiches, bagels and pastries are prepared on-site to reach the counter while they are warm and fresh, and there’s also a small shop operating in the café, offering four types of Arch & Beans coffees, as well as cordials, jams and other delicacies for you to take home. Closed at weekends.


Arch & Beans
District VIII. Rákóczi út 5
Open: Mon-Fri 7.30am-6pm