(CNN) — It’s funny they call them ruin bars because for their founders it’s generally led to good fortune.
It started around 2001, so the story goes, with a bunch of young men looking for cheap places to drink.
From their thirst and shallow pockets have grown some of the most lively and stylish places to drink in Budapest — so-called ruin bars.
Derelict buildings and unused outdoor spaces have been transformed into friendly, pleasingly chaotic bars where you can still get a large beer for less than $2.
Road to ruin
Szimpla Kert was the city’s first Budapest ruin bar — and remains iconic.
Courtesy Jorge Franganillo/Creative Commons/Flickr
It has the classic signs of a ruin pub: willfully mismatched furniture that had seen better days decades ago, art that some visitors have an annoying habit of taking home without asking and, important in summer, a garden in which to catch the sun.
Unlike other ruin pubs, Szimpla Kert has an old Trabant car in the garden that doubles as a table and chairs.
Cigarette smoke takes the place of the exhaust fumes from the former East Germany’s notoriously unreliable vehicle.
We need more derelict spaces! Budapest surely risks running out.
Sound too hipster? Don’t worry.
The day I went the table behind me was filled with locals in their sixties and seventies having an animated conversation over coffee — not a pair of skinny jeans among them.
“We have a discount for retired people,” says Edina Mihaly, who looks after the bar’s programs and PR.
Good for gossip
Szimpla Kert is one of many ruin bars that are great for gossip.
Courtesy Alex Barrow/Creative Commons/Flickr
That’s the key, I discover over the next few days of exploring Budapest’s ruin pubs.
Some might find them trendy and edgy, but they’re really just relaxed and genial places to meet friends and have a drink.
“Szimpla isn’t so much a party place,” says Juliana Szombati, who’s paid by the bar every Friday to teach “pub Hungarian” to tongue-tied tourists desperate to learn how to say more than, “Two beers, please.”
“You come to meet friends and have a drink and a chat, and then go out to a club if you want.
“Hungarians don’t say, ‘Let’s go to a ruin bar.’ I don’t think it matters if it’s a ruin or not. Most people just feel more comfortable in them.”
Once a car park
Ruin bars are part of Budapest’s lively nightlife.
Courtesy Nicolas Vollmer/Creative Commons/Flickr
Three IT students have stopped by for a drink.
“You can’t keep up with all the new places,” says one of them, Tomas Konscis.
His friend, David Augusztinovicz, likes the cheap prices at ruin bars.
Tip Top: ruin bar with a whiff of cleaning fluid, but the views are nice.
Adam Batterbee
The Tip Top roof bar near Pest’s center provides a more sanitized version of the ruin bar experience (along with fantastic views of the city).
The latest lure isn’t so much the place as what it serves.
Craft beers are the newest thing, and the crucible of the craft beer revolution is a bar called Eleszto.
The premises used to be a factory and then a parking lot — perfect ruin bar territory.
Ruin crawl
The following places give a good taste of the range of Budapest ruin bars.
Szimpla Kert
The eclectic interior of Szimpla Kert.
Courtesy Simon Lee/Creative Commons/Flickr
Food includes pizza from a wood-fired oven.
Kuplung
Racskert
Water cisterns recycled as lamps provide the illumination, while a mobile burger van serves snacks from the Bosnian Serb owner’s homeland.
Ellato Kert & Taqueria
There’s a Mexican feel to Ellato Kert and Taqueria, a large garden filled with brightly painted tables — helped, no doubt, by the tacos and tortillas on the menu.
Instant
Flying animals at Instant Pub, Budapest.
Courtesy JaSchau/Creative Commons/Flickr
First-time visitors usually do a double-take when they spot the giant flying animals and, in one room, furniture pinned to the ceiling.
The menu of burgers and fries is the simplest thing about the place.
Corvinteto
It’s a fair trudge up about six flights of stairs, but if you can’t make it that far, the floor below turns into a club at 10 p.m.
On Mondays in summer, when the club is closed, you can still watch movies on the giant rooftop screen.
Editor’s note: This article was previously published in 2013. It was reformatted, updated and republished in 2017.
