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

buildings surrounded by trees and shrubbery. Giving the swing-door at the bottom of the stairs a hearty kick gets you into the inner room where, in partitioned-off boxes and artistic gloom pensioned carpenters and cabinetmakers and first-year sculptors sit drinking wine. In the wooden-table-and-benches-wine-cellar genre it is a fairly good representative.

Kinizsi Sörbár Kinizsi Beer-Bar

VI. Jókai utca 25

The place has served as a pub for a long time, and was “restyled” only once during the last decade. Its current distinguishing features are the river pebbles under the glass-topped counters and the warm, yellowish light. It has many cosy nooks. A collection of beer mugs were hung on the wall over the bar for years, among them a white mug shaped like a breast. Glass-fronted and at street level, the best places are beside the windows looking onto the street.

tVasút Vendéglő Railway Restaurant

VI. Podmaniczky utca 37

The restaurant has closed down and the premises have been modernized into one of those twenty-first century offices or shops. I imagine the old cook of the Vasút Vendéglő, Erzsiké, back in her place. In my mind’s eye 1 can see the deserted, night-time restaurant, look through the little window into the kitchen where an old veined hand is lifting great pieces of meat from one pot to another. Meanwhile the waitress is working on her Kalocsa embroidery and I, with my feet comfortably up on the seat, watch black-and-white television.

Once 1 went there late at night with a large party of people, I wanted to show them the place. It was a few minutes before closing time, but they let us in nevertheless. We ordered cheese fried in breadcrumbs, and the waitress slipped out to the round-the-clock delicatessen and came back with a whole round of cheese under her arm. It was because of the Vasút Vendéglő that I fell in

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