The inner courtyard
A tree, balconies and layers of found-object art.
Yelkrokoyade — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Yelkrokoyade — CC BY-SA 3.0 · JoshuaCrawford — CC BY-SA 4.0 · JoshuaCrawford — CC BY-SA 4.0
Yes, especially by day: coffee, juice and food, and the place is visited for its architecture and furnishing, not its drink. At night it becomes a loud adult bar.
Budapest's old quarter with its three great synagogues and narrow streets, now the centre of nightlife and cafés; Szimpla sits at its heart with dozens of ruin bars around.
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The place that invented the "ruin bar": Szimpla Kert opened in 2002 in an abandoned residential building in the seventh district's Jewish quarter, awaiting demolition — and was never restored, only furnished with whatever its founders found: car seats, old television sets, bicycles hung from the ceiling, a bathtub turned sofa, and walls layered with visitors' handwriting. From a local idea it became a phenomenon copied by cities worldwide, its heart an open inner courtyard with a tree and tiers of balconies around it — filling at night with music and performances and resembling nowhere else. By day it works as a quiet café you can photograph at leisure, and on Sunday mornings a genuine farmers' market fills the same courtyard. Alcohol is part of its trade, but it serves coffee, juices and food and requires no drink. A daytime visit is the recommendation for anyone who wants to see the place rather than its night.
A tree, balconies and layers of found-object art.
The whole logic of the place in one object.
Kazinczy utca 14, Budapest