There comes a point when you stop looking for a programme and just let the place take you. Well, the Hableány is just like that. It doesn’t draw you in like a loud club, it doesn’t flash, it doesn’t try to overwhelm you at all costs – and that’s why it hits so hard.
The first time I went, a friend took me there. He said, „Listen, it’s not just wine, it’s an experience.” I said, yeah, sure. And then we arrive, we sit down, and I knew what he was talking about from the first sip.
The place has a vibe that’s hard to explain. On the outside it’s clean, cool, but not pretentious. Inside… it’s like stepping into a modern wine universe. It’s sophisticated, but it’s also pretty damn cool. A bit like wine is the new DJ – only quieter and deeper.
The wine list? Full of better and better Laposa lots – and don’t think of some snobby sommelier world here. Here you really get to taste Badacsony, sip by sip, story by story. Because every wine has its own character. Like friends: there’s the upbeat, the laid-back, the playful, the scratchier.
The best? That it’s not a place where you just sit with a drink and look out of your head. This is where you start a conversation. Really. About yourself, about the summer, about the girl who didn’t show up, about „listen, I need my own vineyard somewhere”. There’s something happening at every table. A laugh, a toast, an awkward first date.
And there’s the smell of summer on Lake Balaton that can’t be confused with anything else.
The Mermaid doesn’t want to stuff anything down your throat. But that’s why it becomes something more: a place where somehow every night comes together. And you can’t do that anywhere else – not in Budapest, not anywhere else around Lake Balaton.
I was sitting there one night, with a glass of Kéknyelű, next to my friend, music playing in the background, but just enough not to drown out the conversation. And I felt: this is the moment you save for winter. An evening that doesn’t want to be memorable – and that’s why it is.
