The capital will be poorer in the future with a legend: the iconic pastry shop of Budapest, Hauer, has closed after 122 years. Metropol spoke to the manager of the store and commemorated the former coffee house with some rare pictures.

"Due to the adverse effects of the economic environment on the hospitality industry - increased energy and raw material prices, decreasing tourism and guest numbers - we closed our coffee house!" - they announced the sad news on their Facebook page, but in fact they had been closed since mid-September. Many will miss the nostalgic atmosphere of Hauer, reminiscent of coffee houses from the time of the monarchy.

The "suburban Gerbeaud" was the headquarters of the Pest citizens.

The confectionery was founded by Nándor Kazilek in 1890. The area around Blaha Lujza tér was still considered a suburban area at that time. The citizens of Pest only referred to him as "Gerbeaud of the suburbs", since he represented the same quality and standard as his downtown counterpart. After Kazilek's death, in 1896, his widow, Mária Guth, married Rezső Hauer, who also took over the management of the company, and from 1899 he operated it under his own name. The store was opened in II. After World War II, it was nationalized, from 1956 it was Erkel confectionary, and then in 1970 it got back the legendary Hauer name. After the regime change, it was again in private hands, but after 101 years of continuous operation, it was closed in 1991. It reopened in 2002, but it had a difficult fate, it was not open several times for years. The current Hauer confectionary reopened on August 20, 2017.

The entire inventory was destroyed

Richárd Pleizer, the manager of Hauer Cukrászda és Kávéház, told Metropol that they were forced to close due to the uncertain economic situation and an unexpected action by the electricity supplier.
"In the middle of September, Elmű came out and turned off the electricity on the grounds that we had not paid the bill and that we still had 10 minutes," recalled the head of the pastry shop.
- "I hoped that we would be able to open again later, but due to the disconnection of the refrigerators, the stock was destroyed, the turnover was delayed, the cakes and event bookings had to be refunded. The Christmas period was also unpredictable, especially since we saw that August was not as strong as we expected. We got into a spiral from which there was no way out." According to Pleizer, it is doubtful whether they will be able to open in the future, because in the current situation, it is important to consider whether anyone would start a business that follows the classic catering industry line.

Many people visited Hauer only for the special Sacher cake

Hauerban being a classic place, the classic delicacies were the most popular. Among the delicacies of the time, the most successful were the Hauer cream cake, the corner house, and the pineapple and marzipan flavored cream cake, but the iced cream cake was also produced there for the first time in the country. According to Richárd Pleizer, in recent years the drum cake and Esterházy cake have been leading the way, as well as the French cream and the confectionery's homemade cream. Jancsi Rigó, Rákóczi curd and Alain Ducasse's Sacher cake were also popular. The latter was not made with flour, but with gluten-free cornmeal, and marzipan held the dough together. In addition to the jam, it had a distinct layer of chocolate, and the whole thing was covered with a special, shiny chocolate coating called mirror dark. Many people visited Hauer solely for this delicacy.

Source: Metropol

Photo: Facebook