Kocsis Irma: A tour of our Locals. (A very quick one) - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)

further on, inside the house, is the bar proper, and on the right-hand side is a lean-to added on to the house. Posters of nudes, and at one side, under a canvas cover, you’ll find a bamboo jungle. The purpose of all this? Bamboozled!

One of the best hidden pubs in Pest.

Mészöly Söröző Mészöly Beer-Hall

XI. Bartók Béla út 21

A famous corner pub with a cellar in a state of continuous development, a terrace in the summer (from where 1 was once shoved into a jeep and carried off by a posse of men with machine-guns), and the military building opposite, kept under strict guard. Proposed programme: take photographs of the building opposite while under the influence, wake up at the district police station, Zsombolyai utca. (Sentries hand over unsuspecting tourists snapping photographs to the civil authorities.)

Donkanyar (Körtéri Bisztró)

The Don Bend (Körtér Snack-Bar)

XI. Móricz Zsigmond körtér 16

A living classic on the corner of Karinthy Frigyes út. The salesgirl from the bookstall opposite says disgustedly: “They use a hose to pump the beer in from the beer cart in the mornings." (I’ve never seen it done.)

Mosaic flags cover the wall beside the entrance, reaching down to where the washroom attendant is busy with her folk-art embroidery. This pub has permanent residents. One man has been a regular for decades. From the gallery you can look down at the stand-up counters, and see the group of men with their elbows on one of those small, round, high-legged tables, a mug of Kőbányai beer in front of them, staring fixedly at the wall.

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