The Hungarian Pastry Shop: Purveyor of coffee, cake, and conversation since 1961
NEW YORK – The Hungarian Pastry shop has been a Morningside Heights destination for coffee, cake, and conversation since 1961.
"My customers, when I first came to this, they were students. And now, they come with their grandkids. So that means we've been here for a very, very long time," said Greek native Panagiotis Binioris, who bought the cafe from its founders in 1976.
Steps away from Columbia University's campus and in the shadow of the majestic Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the Hungarian Pastry Shop has remained through the decades, keeping its original recipes for strudel, linzer, and hamantash.
In addition to its pastries, it has earned a reputation for its sociable atmosphere.
"Most of my customers are regulars. They come almost every day, and they feel that this is their home," Panagiotis said. "We care about them."
These relationships are equally important to his son Philip, who took over the business ten years ago.
"I love talking and learning about customers and their lives," he said. "I find it to be a great school for me."
Many customers are local students and writers, making use of a table and bottomless coffee while working on their dissertations and novels.
"They have their earplugs in, so they can tune out, or they can sort of surreptitiously listen in on other conversations," said Wendy Binioris, a fixture of the cafe and Philip's mother.
"I think some of our authors have probably gotten little snippets of dialogue from listening in," she said.
A wall is devoted to framed cover art for the books written, in part or in whole, at the Hungarian Pastry Shop, including Ta-Nehisi Coates's "Between the World and Me."
For Wendy, the secret to the cafe's survival is its sameness. Regulars who return after growing up or moving away see the cafe from their memories still standing.
"They come back, and it's as they remember it. And there's not a lot around that you can say that about," she said. "We're not trying to be anything else than what we are."
The Hungarian Pastry Shop
1030 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10025
(212) 866-4230