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Ester Latama, Dutch singer, Pasar Malam Burgers Bush, Arnhem January 6, 2019. She sings as good as she looks..
The local coal manages to escape Ester without a meet. Ester is often the meeting place between the local coal and the northbound overnight freight.
Budapest, Vörösmarty tér/Square.
Founded in 1858.
The tradition-rich history of Gerbeaud began in 1858 with Henrik Kugler, the third descendent of a confectionery dynasty. During his years of travel and as an apprentice, Kugler perfected his specialized knowledge of his art in eleven European metropolises, including Paris. The influence of this experience is recognizable to this day.
Kugler opened his first café on what is now József nádor Square. Because of the tastefully furnished salon, the assortment of Chinese and Russian tea specialities, and „the best ice-creams in Pest,” it soon became a wellknown meeting place. In 1870, Henrik Kugler moved his business to Vörösmarty Square, where he could offer his delicacies from the centre of the city.
Kugler’s frothy coffee with chocolate, his special liqueurs and his bon-bons drew in crowds. The Kugler tortes and mignons were not only well-loved, but could be wrapped on a paper tray to take-away, an innovation of Kugler’s.
Famous personalities such as Ferenc Deák and Ferenc Liszt were among the patrons of the café. In 1881, Kugler’s was called „the meeting point of six elegant worlds.”
Henrik Kugler met Emil Gerbeaud for the first time in 1882, in Paris. He invited him a year later to Budapest in order to make him his business partner. Born in Geneva, and like Kugler, coming from a family of confectioners, he travelled as a young man to England, France and Germany, acquiring international experience. He settled in St. Étienne and married Ester Ramseyer the daughter of yet another confectioner and chocolate producer of Saint-Imiér.
In 1884, he entered Kugler’s business, which he gradually overtook. Gerbeaud’s extraordinary talent and his enterprising spirit gave the business added impetus, and accounted for the unique success story of Gerbeaud‘s. Emil Gerbeaud took on a great number of new employees in both sales and service. He introduced numerous innovations: he included among the café’s offerings exceptional, new products, he created hundreds of biscuits, sweets, bon-bons and cherry liqueur bon-bons.
He equipped his bakery with modern machines. By the end of the century, he had approximately 150 employees, many of whom had come to Budapest specifically to work for him. The name Gerbeaud soon become wellknown and espected. With good businness sense, Emil Gerbeaud continued for decades to use the name of his predecessor, Henrik Kugler. His quality was of the highest order. His baked goods were beautifully decorated, his sweets and bon-bons were packaged in artistic paper boxes of his own design. He strove to make a visit to Gerbeaud an experience for his guests.
Gerbeaud was granted valuable awards at numerous exhibitions. World Fair in Brussels and the 1900 Paris Exposition, he was invited to be a member of the jury, and was awarded the French Legion of Honour. Gerbeaud’s lucky star continued to shine ever wider and brighter. After the death of Henrik Kugler in 1908, Gerbeaud established a public limited company under the name „Kugler’s Successor Gerbeaud.” He also kept an eye on the changes in his steadily modernising world: from 1909, there were spaces for both horse-drawn carriages and automobiles in the parking area of the café.
The plans for the interior decoration of the café were completed by the artisan Henrik Darilek in the years after 1910. Fine woods, marble and bronze were used. The ceilings were decorated with rococo plaster work in Louis XV style; the chandeliers and wall lamps were created in Maria
Theresa Style. Gerbeaud had secessionist style tables sent from the Paris World Fair so that the elegant ambiance would be perfect. During this time, however, the effects of the First World War were felt ever more strongly, even in the Gerbeaud House.
Although Emil Gerbeaud survived the difficult war years, he died on November 8, 1919.
His wife Esther took an active part in the management of the business until 1940, always careful to maintain its high standards. At her death, her contemporaries said of her: "She will no longer sit there with her creamy-white hair, in her silk dresses, to control whether or not the coffee with whipped cream in the fine China cups is served promptly and tastefully, and whether the silver tray under the chocolate is shiny enough."
Emil Gerbeaud was an enigmatic personality. His secret lay in his constant attention to the quality and perfection of his products. He was an artist in his profession, whose new ideas
continually developed. To his splendid café he brought a French spirit and a Parisian atmosphere, which was happily embraced by the Pest public.
Over the past century and a half, Gerbeaud Café has numbered among its guests the cream of society and practically every famous person who has visited Budapest. A few impressive names from our guest register: Empress Elizabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; Ferenc Deák; Franz Liszt: King George of Great Britain; Edward, Prince of Wales; Josephine Baker. More recently, Princess Diana, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Elizabeth II, former Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky, former Czech president Vacláv Hável. And from the world of stars: Madonna, Ralph Fiennes, Melanie Griffith, Antonio Banderas, Brad Pitt...