I didn’t have much difficulty finding the Hungarian Pastry Shop, located on New York City’s Upper West Side not far from Columbia University. It was late October and I was visiting from outside the city for the weekend. Craving coffee and excited to try the beloved shop’s treats, I turned the corner onto Amsterdam Avenue and immediately saw a line snaking down the block, originating from a cheerful-looking but unlabeled cafe storefront.

“The line out the door is a new development, and I'm very grateful for it,” said owner Philip Binioris when I spoke to him later about my visit. Philip has owned the Hungarian Pastry Shop since 2012, when he took it over from his father Panagiotis Binioris.

Usually, visitors won’t need a long line to help themselves find this iconic cafe. For the past year, they have been renovating its exterior, a project made possible by the Backing Historic Small Restaurants (BHSR) program—a joint program between the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express. With this $40,000 grant, which they received in 2023, they were able to make much-needed improvements to the windows and doors, as well as install a custom-designed mosaic on the facade. This work has required them to temporarily remove their red-and-white striped awning, which will return to its rightful place once work is complete.

Now in its fourth year, the BHSR program has provided funds for historic and culturally significant restaurants that operate in historic buildings or neighborhoods to help them “rejuvenate, innovate, and expand their businesses.”

“The Hungarian Pastry Shop represents the enduring legacy of small businesses that serve as cultural landmarks throughout the country,” said Natalie Woodward, the program’s associate manager. “We're just so happy to be able to help them continue their longevity.”

There’s no better way to understand an iconic restaurant like this one than through its food. Here’s a look at three tasty treats that you can try at the Hungarian Pastry Shop–and what each of them can tell you about its legacy.

Cheese Puffs

Anyone looking to try something traditionally Hungarian should start by ordering a cheese puff from the Hungarian Pastry Shop. Called pogácsa, these tall and fluffy treats resemble American-style buttermilk biscuits. The cheese gives them a salty nuttiness that I immediately found addictive. I could have easily eaten five of them in one sitting.

The Hungarian Pastry Shop was opened by a Vinaeese-trained Hungarian baker

Josef Vekony in 1961, a time when the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan was home to a large community of Czech and Hungarian immigrants. Panagiotis Binioris is Greek, not Hungarian, but when he and three friends bought the shop from in 1976, they had no interest in changing the name–or the menu. And thanks to that fateful decision, you can continue to enjoy Dobos tortes, poppyseed strudel, and, of course, pogácsa to this day, their recipes virtually unchanged in 60 years.

Hungarian Coffee

By the time I reached the front of the line at the Pastry Shop, I was desperate for coffee, so a menu attached to a pillar in the middle of the shop immediately caught my eye. Along with all the expected drip and espresso offerings, the menu lists hot cider, steamed milk and honey, “Hungarian Coffee” flavored with almond extract and served with whipped cream, and more.

I chose the Hungarian coffee.

The hand-painted menu, which has been around since the 1970s, is part of what gives the space its old-fashioned charm, as do the crowded-together tables, wooden chairs, and sturdy ceramic coffee mugs. But what makes the space extra special are the framed dust jackets covering the walls. From Ta Nehisi Coates’ novel The Water Dancer, to the short story collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander, to The War Before the War by Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco, the books represented vary in genre, style, and subject. What they have in common is that they were written, at least in part, in the Hungarian Pastry Shop.

“It was my mom’s idea,” said Philip. “I can’t remember what the impetus was, but she decided she wanted to start doing that. We started with a couple of panels, and it just continued.”

These days, Philip doesn’t have to seek out authors who have written their books in the pastry shop; they come to him. There are just two conditions that books have to follow before they can be added to the wall: they can’t be self-published, and they have to have been primarily written in the Hungarian Pastry Shop.

How can Philip be sure that authors are telling the truth?

“If we don't know your coffee order, then it's highly unlikely that you worked on the book here.”

Linzer Tart

Next to the glistening cakes and fruit-stuffed strudels that fill the pastry shop’s display case, the Linzer tarts don’t look particularly decadent, but they still catch the eye. For one thing, they’re enormous: probably at least twice the size of the jam-filled treats that usually show up on a plate of Christmas cookies. First created in Linzer, Germany as a fruit-filled pastry with a delicate lattice top (a version also available in the shop), these treats transformed in Hungary, and later in the United States, into the cookies we recognize today.

Like the Linzer tarts themselves, the Hungarian Pastry Shop has adapted to many changes over the years while maintaining qualities of another era. In a city of chain coffee shops, trend-setting restaurants, and overhyped tourist traps, this little cafe with no wifi, where strangers share tables and regulars linger for hours, balances old and new to serve–first and foremost–its local community.

As was the case for many restaurants, the Hungarian Pastry Shop came to rely heavily on its neighbors during the COVID-19 epidemic. “The community members who lived here, the families who had lived here for generations, those were the people who kept us in business,” said Philip.”Those were the people lining up outside the door.”

Other neighbors have taken their dedication to the pastry shop further; in fact, it was another neighborhood institution that made Philip aware of the Backing Historic Small Restaurants program in the first place.

“The Morningside Heights Historic District Committee alerted me to the grant and told me that they wanted to apply for it on our behalf. It was really special. We had been planning a storefront renovation for years, but I’m not sure they were even aware of that. They just wanted to nominate us based on our role in the community and our history.”