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

Forintos Pince Büfé Penny Cellar Snack-Bar

V. Nagy Korona utca 20

A wine-cellar on the corner, opened a couple of years ago, with a fine prospect of Arany János utca and of Nagy Korona (Alpári Gyula) utca. A strategic view. There are a couple of fruit machines but they cause no trouble at all, some kind of wall separates them from the pub proper. Only a soft hum-a bubbling kind of sound-can be heard. Someone around here must work in a furniture factory, because even the ceilings are panelled in plywood. This is a really pleasant cellar. If 1 remember well, the National Headquarters of the Workers’ Militia used to be in this building.

Kálmán utcai Csengődi Borozó Csengődi Wine-Tavern

V. Kálmán utca 15

1 used to pass by it quite often, because there is a little second-hand bookshop opposite (now privately owned) that used to sell the duplicates from the Széchényi Library. It still houses the largest collection of owls in Pest. Wooden owls, brass owls, china owls, plastic owls, glass owls.

The change of regime split the customers of the Csengődi into two camps. There is tension in the air. Invisible boundary lines have been drawn. Scornful looks, accusing fingers are directed towards a corner where men in heavy winter coats sit with their heads stuck together. “That’s the Kádár gang, bloody commie murderers." The tattooed arm is lowered. “I’ve seen the inside of Kádár’s prisons! They ought to be hanged, the lot of them!”, and points a finger at them again. A couple of stealthy glances come our way from the corner table. They can hear every word.

The Csengődi is not a cellar pub. It is not even a very good pub. But it is typical.

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