{"id":462,"date":"2013-01-29T19:02:30","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T00:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/batchat.net\/?p=462"},"modified":"2013-01-29T19:02:30","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T00:02:30","slug":"the-most-amazing-wine-bar-in-the-world-getting-there-is-half-the-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/29\/the-most-amazing-wine-bar-in-the-world-getting-there-is-half-the-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Amazing Wine Bar in the World: Getting There is half the fun."},"content":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s right, my first\u2026and only\u2026pick for a wine bar that will blow your mind.\u00a0 The real estate folks say \u201clocation, location, location.\u201d\u00a0 Well, Faust Wine Bar in Budapest not only has the most fabulous location, but getting there is half the fun.\u00a0 It\u2019s tucked away at end of a labyrinthine pathway in the cellars of the remains of a 16th<\/sup> Century Franciscan church that also happens to be part of a modern Hilton Hotel in the Castle District on the Buda side of Budapest.\u00a0 We\u2019ll get back to the wine bar itself shortly, but it\u2019s the path you have to follow to get to this place that is equally as fascinating as the wines on the list.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My pictures don\u2019t do the journey justice, but they do give you inkling.\u00a0 Take a hard left at the lobby of the new part of the hotel and head past the ruins of the \u201cnew\u201d part of the church.\u00a0\"P1010968\"<\/a> There\u2019s a small sign on a stand and an arch and doorway that seems pretty normal, but definitely downstairs.\u00a0 You\u2019re wondering if it\u2019s open when you arrive at another sign in front of a wall built of bottles, and some gold leaf lettering on a window reading \u201cFaust Wine Bar\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But this isn\u2019t it; it\u2019s just the sign telling you to keep walking. \u00a0\"P1010973\"<\/a>This leads you through a winding hallway with remnants of the church on display, including the red marble traditionally used for gravestones.\u00a0 \"P1010976\"<\/a>We\u2019re at the church\u2019s foundation level, but we continue down some more stairs.<\/p>\n

\"P1010978\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wondering if the place is open, we come to a very old door \"P1010993\"<\/a>with some modern signage; enter and walk down another flight of steps and it starts to feel like the \u201cFaust\u201d name might be a harbinger\u2026you feel like you\u2019re walking into the bowels of the earth with stonework that is getting older and rougher in appearance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Down another flight of stairs decorated with plastic grapevine and you\u2019re greeted with a tableaux of a desk with wine bottle and glass and a\u00a0 straw dummy\u2026from the top of the stairs, you could swear it\u2019s a real person until you get closer and see that it\u2019s just a set.\u00a0\"P1020010\"<\/a> Feeling a bit more confident that the place might be open you see another archway and think, I must be there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But no.\u00a0 Take another hard left through a very, very, very old wooden door with old iron hinges and there\u2019s another hallway and the stonework becomes much older and rougher.\u00a0 Old looking wall sconces through off a dim light evocative of what this must have looked like pre-electricity.\u00a0 And there\u2019s another hallway, and another flight of steps\u2026.going down.\u00a0 At the end you see a few white Christmas lights and you think, well this must be it.\"P1020016\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nope!\u00a0 Down a spiral staircase, to an entranceway that would do Edgar Allen Poe proud.\u00a0 Two display cases frame a doorway that is up about 5 steps and lit just\"P1020032\"<\/a> dimly enough to frame a tantalizing glimpse into the tasting room.\u00a0 Whew!\u00a0 It feels like you walked about a quarter of a mile, and about 100 feet down.\u00a0 Enter the tasting room and you are in a small (50 x 20 feet or so) cellar reminiscent of the Canava caves in Santorini, only this one is has an arched ceiling carved out of the very bedrock of Castle Hill.\u00a0 Eroded wall niches \"P1020052\"<\/a>are richly lit with candles giving the room a warm, but moody ambience.\u00a0 Against the far wall are some built-in racks to store the wine, and a small service table to the left of the entrance.\u00a0 No running water, no internet, the only inkling of modernity are the small electric lights on the racks and the mandatory sprinkler piping for the fire suppressant system. As you walk in you hear \u201csz\u00edvesen l\u00e1tott\u201d \u00a0<\/b>Welcome! In Magyar (a language which is said to be related to Finnish, but there are a couple of of Finns in the wine bar who tell me that\u2019s what they heard to, but it\u2019s unrecognizable to them) and you\u2019re greeted by the bright smile of Gabor Nagy\"P1020070\"<\/a>, the proprietor who leases the space from the Hilton.\u00a0 He explains the place has been open only two years, and yes, it\u2019s a bit of a challenge to get to (think how hard it is to get inventory down here!) \u00a0\u00a0but pretty nice when you do arrive.<\/p>\n

Check it out next time you’re in Budapest…www.gbwine.eu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faust Wine Bar in Budapest not only has the most fabulous location, but getting there is half the fun. It\u2019s tucked away at end of a labyrinthine pathway in the cellars of the remains of a 16th Century Franciscan church that also happens to be part of a modern Hilton Hotel in the Castle District of Budapest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7k1BV-7s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}