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This small antique shop at Klauzál Square sells old glass soda bottles too. Store owner Gábor Halász doubts that these attractive vessels will go out of fashion anytime soon. “The bottles are really pretty, making them an ideal decoration,” Gábor says. However, he adds that less and less people use them in everyday life, as the number of places where you can refill them shrinks.
Address: Budapest 1072, Klauzál Square 10
At Fricska, as soon as the level of soda starts to drop in your glass, a waiter comes with a seltzer bottle in his hands and refills it, and they make all different versions of fröccs as well. According to restaurant sommelier Csaba Csongrádi, fröccs can only be made with soda, not with mineral water. Why? “Because wine emulsifies only with soda!” Csaba can still recall the era when horse carts used to deliver soda to families around the capital. “That was always an important event.”
Ever since the first hungry customer was fed there more than 58 years ago, there are bottles of soda perpetually placed on the tables of Kádár Eatery. “There are always two bottles of it on the tables, so that as soon as the guest sits down, they are treated with something. We also like the bottles. In the old times, the bottles were made of glass, but that stopped more than ten years ago, because of glass breakage,” says founder Sándor Orbán. The tradition of soda is important for him; after all, such hallowed customs are why most of the regulars keep coming back.
Szóda is a dimly lit downtown-Pest drinking destination founded in 2003, and due to its name, the proprietors absolutely must feature bottled soda on the bar. There is always plenty of seltzer available on the counter, and guests can refill their glass for free. Szóda gets its soda bottles from Kisszóda at Hunyadi Square (see below).
Amid the stylish setting of Mazel Tov, anyone can order a glass bottle of soda, but guests usually ask for a bottle of white or rosé wine to accompany it and pour their own fröccs with varied proportions. Business manager Balázs Gulyás said that although they have mineral water too, soda bottles are a lot more elegant and stylish. As an added bonus, soda is less irritating for the stomach than mineral water.
Since 1994, there is a small shop near the marketplace at Hunyadi Square, in the back of the garden, where you can buy only one thing – you've guessed it, soda. You have to pay a deposit of 1,000 forints for a glass soda bottle, and for just 50 forints, they refill it for you. The plastic version costs a bit less – the deposit is only 250 forints – but it is pricier to refill it: 60 forints. László Kiss told us what he really loves about soda: that it sparkles until the very last drop, not like common mineral water, which – if you don't drink it within a minute – runs out of bubbles when it comes to the last few sips.
Address: Budapest 1067, Hunyadi Square 3
