Magyar News, 1993. szeptember-1994. augusztus (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1994-02-01 / 6. szám
A DREAM THAT WAS NEVER DREAMT kepi this title throughout her life. She did things her own way. She served food with the 5 cents glass of beer. Every afternoon when people were heading home from work she had a sizable table set up with food for sampling. Not that the patrons could have dinner there but to have a bite of good Hungarian cooking to help them with their drinks. After some years, prohibition cast its shadow on the business but not on the Zamboris. They turned the place around and made it into a delicatessen. The business survived and at the end of the prohibition it went back to serve liquor. This time it opened as a restaurant and it was named Knickerbocker. It got its name from Gusztáv who, when landing in the States, spent the first night in New York in the Knickerbocker Hotel. After the prohibition Gusztáv had a change of heart and decided to move out of the restaurant business. He purchased the Westend Bowling Alley, so Zsuzsanna was left to manage the Knickerbocker. She had a good helper, her daughter Irene, who finished school and received her diploma in business, had experience with a loan and investment firm. She also had experience in the restaurant business because she always worked and helped out at the Knickerbocker. It was unusual to have women manage a restaurant or a saloon, but this Hungarian lady from Nyiribrony broke the pattern. Not long before women were not allowed into a saloon. When they were asked to fetch some beer for the husband, they had to stop at the door and hand in their bucket to be filled under the swinging door, or through an opening designed for this purpose. These women learned the trade very fastand figured out that if they smear butter on the inside of the bucket then the beer will not have a foam head and they will get more beer in their bucket. Fred Warcup TheZamboris were expanding their business. First though, Zsuzsanna’s sister-inlaw opened a restaurant that didn’t seem to work out, so the Zamboris purchased it from her. Irene Zambori, being the first woman in Connecticut to have a full liquor license, took over managing it with a staff of a dozen, and named it ZOMBORY’S. It The mansion of the Zámbori family was located on the comer of Wall S treet and Water Street Now they had three businesses going, the Knickerbocker, the Zombory’s and the Westend Bowling. They also found their way into society. They owned a 22-room mansion among the rich and famous along Seaside Park. Theirnextdoorneighborwas the famous and infamous P. T. Bamum. The Sunday Herald publisher, also a neighbor, once remarked that the Zamboris are the only people of foreign extraction to invade Seaside Park. Later, in the sixties, the mansion was transferred over to the expanding University of Bridgeport and was named Fairfield Dormitory. The Knickerbocker was built in the 1880s and was in the Zambori family for 70 years. It was an architectural gem of its time and was the most admired bar of Bridgeport. For all those years the Zamboris preserved it to its fullest and kept it as clean as only a Hungarian woman could do. People compared it to the New York landmark, McSorley’s Old Ale House. The Knickerbocker was the gathering place not only to the neighborhood, but to the university students, journalists and politicians. It was sold in 1981, changed hands many times, then an arsonist set it on fire. The fire extremely damaged the second and third floors, therefor wiping itoff the map. I have to mention that despite the full liquor license, Irene never tasted alcoholic beverages, only a sip at the Lord’s Supper in the church. The mansion gave way to the new developments of the University. The Knickerbocker went down in ashes, the Zombory’s Restaurant made adjustments to the new irrmge of Down-town and the Zambori girls'1 names changed. We lost track of the third enterprise, the Bowling Alley. Filed in the archives are the many articles of newspapers and magazines about this interesting Hungarian famiiy. So what is left? I could only think of a proverb from the ancient time of the Romans; “I erected a monument stronger than steel.” This is what Gusztáv and Zsuzsanna Zám bori from Nyiribrony, Szabolcs Megye did with their exemplary life. They created a life that they never dreamt of. , , c D , , Joseph F. Balogh Pamela K. Revak Attorney at Law 1275 Post Road, Suite 212 Fairfield, Connecticut ESTATE, TRUST AND TAXATION SERVICES, INCLUDING TAX RETURN PREPARATION 259-9578 1
