The Gundel Palace is celebrating its 130th anniversary: what is perhaps Hungary’s best-known restaurant will be introducing a number of innovations in 2024, but economic and market conditions – as is the case across the hospitality sector as a whole – are also affecting them, according to a statement made at a press conference held on Tuesday by the operator, Eventrend Group.

Zoltán Kőrössy, a founding partner of the Eventrend Group, told *Portfolio* that, within the group, he has observed that tourists have largely returned to restaurants since the Covid pandemic: whilst they served around 55,000 guests in 2022,

LAST YEAR, THE NUMBER OF GUESTS ROSE BY 20–30 PER CENT, AND A FURTHER 20 PER CENT INCREASE IS EXPECTED THIS YEAR.

However, due to the recent outbreaks of war, both Russian and Israeli visitors – who used to be regulars in Budapest – are noticeably absent from the tourist numbers. This, in turn, is having an impact on the turnover of hospitality venues (Eventrend’s portfolio includes, amongst others, the New York Café, the Centrál Café, the Spoon Boat, the Városliget Restaurant and Café, the Cziniel Confectionery, the Főőrség Café, as well as five provincial hotels and several major catering and event management companies – Ed.) is also being affected.

The Covid pandemic, which broke out in the early years of the decade, took its toll on the hospitality sector in terms of the labour market: restrictions led to mass redundancies, but after the pandemic subsided, many did not return to the sector, feeling that their new jobs offered greater security. Nevertheless, Kőrössy believes that

LAST YEAR, WELL-TRAINED STAFF BEGAN TO RETURN TO RESTAURANTS.

Jenő Magyary, managing director of Gundel Restaurant, also confirmed that, in recent times, they have been able to select candidates on the basis of the quality of their work.

The sector has not been left unscathed by the rise in energy prices in recent years: to counteract this, energy efficiency improvements have been carried out at the Gundel Palace, which is celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, including the installation of solar panels to reduce the restaurant’s running costs, and they intend to continue developing the energy system in a more sustainable direction in the future.

It was announced at Tuesday’s press conference that the restaurant, located in the building which is celebrating a milestone birthday this year, is introducing several important innovations. Working in collaboration with the State Institute for the Blind, they have developed a menu featuring 11 dishes written in Braille, 11-item menu in Braille, and, with the help of instructors from the National Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, all staff have learnt the sign language equivalents of terms commonly used in the hospitality industry.

This is of particular importance to the restaurant because its founder, Károly Gundel, originally envisaged the place as a place where everyone would receive the same level of service, regardless of rank, social class or financial means. In the 1930s, the restaurant – which at the time operated a terrace seating 1,000 people – had a guiding principle that servants and coachmen were also welcome; for this reason, at the far end of the terrace there was a beer garden-style service area where they sold sausages, pretzels and beer. The management would like to return to these roots: there is no longer a dress code, and prices are set so that it is not only the wealthiest who can afford a dinner at the restaurant. However, domestic and global economic trends have not changed as a result: the cost of raw materials and overheads has risen significantly in recent years, placing a heavy burden on catering establishments. According to Jenő Magyary, they are trying to curb soaring prices in several ways: they do not pass on the full cost of rising raw material prices to customers, and when compiling the menu, they take into account which ingredients remain affordable and give priority to these.