Voices of the pandemic: Cube Coffee Bar holds on during trying times

For expats living in Budapest, the coronavirus cut many off from friends and family. For expats operating a business in Budapest, it was a frightening unknown, with many wondering whether they would be able to survive this financial storm. In our new series of expat interviews, we chat to business owners in the city who share their personal experiences navigating these uncertain times, and their hopes for the future.

Aniko Fenyvesi came to Hungary looking for “a bit of an adventure”. She now sits in her café on Hunyadi tér, serving takeaway coffees to far fewer customers a year into the coronavirus restrictions, and chats about the difficult times. “I took a major financial hit to keep my staff employed,” she says, “but we stuck it out. I have a really great crew”.

The Canadian native came to Hungary at the end of 2003, leaving a well-paid job behind. “I didn’t plan to stay here,” she admits, but the country had other ideas.

“I took various writing jobs, which was a great way to get to know the city, but I always wanted to open a place,” she explains. “A restaurant is tricky, but opening a café seemed like a lower barrier to entry. All you need is a good coffee machine, a good space and good staff.”

The Cube Coffee Bar is a darling café, with chic, exposed-brick walls, hanging lights and quaint white tables. Various cakes, wraps and other nibbles entice passers-by in the window, and in the sweltering summer heat, there’s air-conditioning.

Today, however, the chairs are stacked against the wall and some power tools sit on the table. “Since no one can come in, we’ve started doing renovations,” says Aniko, “something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time”.

Despite the hard times, it’s Aniko’s unflinching work ethic which has kept her ploughing forward. “The impact of the coronavirus has been good and bad,” she says. “This place is four years old. Just as we were starting to get our feet underneath us, the pandemic hit. Last year we started doing boxed lunches – Asian, Mexican food, any sort of food I could think of. Then we moved on to the cookbooks.”

Photo: Gretchen Kessler - We Love Budapest

The cookbooks are a passion project born out of years of collecting recipes – since Aniko was a child, even. “We didn’t have any customers, so it was time to experiment,” she explains. Almost everyone who works at the café has been involved in the project, which have so far produced two hand-bound, seasonal cookbooks – complete with unique artwork to each recipe.

“It cost a lot of money,” Aniko admits, as the binding process is expensive, “but these cookbooks are so personal”. The recipes include favourites from the café, including a vegan pâté in the winter cookbook, for sale on today’s menu as a wrap.

Aniko’s plans for the café go even further than this latest project, however. With renovations well under way, she also wants to do a concert series in the park come August, as well as designing reusable takeaway cups and tote bags. “And we want to start doing wine nights, also,” she adds, “and when the public can come in again, I want to turn the café walls into an art gallery.”

For now, the interior of the café remains firmly shut to guests, a decision that Aniko and her staff made long before it was mandated by the government. Business trundles onwards, despite the substantial financial set-backs. “I left home at 17 and I always preferred to do things on my own,” says Aniko, “so I’m used to hard times, and I don’t freak out when my bank account is low. The point is that I’m doing what I like, I’m creative, and what I put in is what I get out".

She shrugs. “You have to do things you want to do, and money should not be your main motivator,” she says, “because if it is, you will not be happy, I think”.