Three of Jamie's managers arrived in Budapest in autumn 2015 to check out the locations, among other things. We had to decide between the bustling city centre and Buda Castle.
That's when the 1st District Municipality put out a tender for the lease of the old Hadik, formerly the Fehér Holló restaurant, which had been vacant for years. As a lover of the Buda Castle, Ilona was very keen that the restaurant should be located here, by the historic Hadik statue, because from here you can see the Szentháromság Square, the Matthias Church, and the view is beautiful wherever you sit.
After having dinner at Spíler with Jamie's team, we made them take us for a walk along Király Street, then across the Chain Bridge and up to the Castle via Clark Ádám Square. At first they were very protesting, saying that the Buda Castle was a tourist attraction and insisting that the restaurant should be in a location frequented by locals.
But we felt that Jamie Oliver's name could bring Hungarian visitors up to the castle and finally break the stereotype that you can't drive into Buda Castle, you can't park, everything is very expensive and only tourists are targeted. We knew it wasn't like that at all.
In the end, we managed to convince the team with our previous experience - 35 years at that time - that there was no better location for such a restaurant than Buda Castle. We submitted the application, won the tender and were awarded the lease.
After a very long and arduous preparation, Jamie Oliver's Italian finally opened in May 2016 and became a great favourite of locals and tourists from the very first moment.
We remember that on the opening day, the phone lines were overwhelmed, so many messages came in via email and Facebook that one of our colleagues did nothing but deal with them for two days. It was incredible to see Jamie's popularity, but most of all, it was incredible to see Jamie succeed in doing what we always believed in: finding the perfect place for Jamie Oliver's Italian in Buda Castle.