Baklava and Books: The Writers of Hungarian Pastry Shop

You may not realize it, but Morningside Heights has more ghosts than other neighborhoods.

According to author Rivka Galchen, this is because Columbia adds an undercurrent of “sameness” to the community embodied by the Hungarian Pastry Shop, a café on 110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue that has barely changed in the last thirty years. This Wednesday at Symphony Space on 95th Street and Broadway, Selected Shorts will host a special event called Writing in the Cafe honoring the Hungarian and three authors who write there—Nathan Englander, Rivka Galchen, and Julie Otsuka.

These writers come to the Hungarian for the mix of family and strangers, isolation and atmosphere, and unlimited coffee. “I’ve never found another cafe like it anywhere in any other city in the world,” Otsuka said. Galchen added that “there are always 18-to-22-year-olds arguing about politics and what Adam Smith really meant. It’s kind of pretentious and kind of nice—the intellectual game becomes a way that people flirt.” This atmosphere has contributed to the works of these writers in different but equally salient ways.

Nathan Englander is the author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, which will be performed by I Am My Own Wife actor Jefferson Mays on Wednesday. “I write hard,” he said. “It’s pretty all-consuming, the writing life for me, and it can be very isolating, so I love the community that the pastry shop provides.” After living in Jerusalem, where strikes and holidays often forced businesses to close, Englander found that the Hungarian was a very stable working environment—and a very constant one as well. “Students change. That’s it. Maybe every few years they get a new waitress and switch the pictures, but they’re by the same artist,” he said.

The youngest of the writers, Galchen, teaches creative writing at Columbia, where she also received her Master of Fine Arts. She is the author of What Happened Between Us, which will be performed by Jonathan Hadary on Wednesday. She loves the Hungarian because it’s like a family—the whole staff came to the first reading of her debut novel. She always went to the pastry shop as a student and envied the writers, since “all they’d do is write, and they get to do that for a living.” Now, while sipping on her Moroccan tea and nibbling on cookies, Galchen spends most of her mornings writing at the Hungarian. She is really looking forward to the Symphony Space event because of the sense of community it is fostering. She’s glad that actors will be reading her work, as it takes some of the pressure off her.

Otsuka is usually found at a table in the far back corner of the Hungarian. She is the author of Diem Perdidi, which will be performed by Broadway actress Jayne Atkinson, who is joining Angela Lansbury on Broadway in Blithe Spirit this spring. Otsuka’s best friend introduced her to the Hungarian, where she began working in the afternoons. She loves how you can sit in the shop for hours, enjoying the organic, local vibe.

“I don’t know what makes it so special, but for some reason it’s very conducive to creative work ... you’re alone, but you’re not alone at the same time,” she said. Otsuka always begins with a plain croissant, two glasses of water, and decaf coffee, which she refills regularly throughout the day. She wrote her first novel in the back corner of the Hungarian and wonders what she would have done without it.

She summarized it best by saying, “I can’t think of any other place I’d like to write—I really can’t.”

Although Englander, Galchen, and Otsuka are regulars who make their living at the Hungarian, the shop is open to everyone and is truly a community landmark. So whether you frequent the Hungarian Pastry Shop often, have stumbled in once for a Russian coffee, or have simply fantasized about going in, the Symphony Space event will truly reflect the intellectual and artistic vibrancy of Morningside Heights. Tickets are available through the Ticket and Information Center in Lerner Hall or online at www.symphonyspace.org.

Writing in the Cafe is this Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th St. Tickets are $27.You may not realize it, but Morningside Heights has more ghosts than other neighborhoods.