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

with its location, its clientele on certain days consists solely of widowed market-women clad in thirteen petticoats, happily munching on cheesecakes. This is not the reason why I found it worthy of note-the reason for that is its tap-room. For the tap room could have come straight out of Mátészalka. A grave-digger with three teeth jutting out of toothless gums tells (deadly) stiff, revolting jokes, tittering at his own lack of taste. Everyone turns towards the amiable young barman, who is like a god to the grave-diggers.

Kőbányai Sörcsárda Kőbányai Ale-House

X. Jászberényi út 7

Is of course near the Kőbányai Brewery, in Kőbánya. A great big, empty, sparsely furnished place. When I was called up, the recruiting commission summoned me to a place very much like this. A black kitten is playing under the deserted tables of the back premises, and I name him Spritzer after the way he weaves and twines himself around the tables on graceful, velvety black legs. This is not one of those much-frequented pubs. There is a battered piece of paper on the wall behind the bar, with a drawing of a battered old drunk very shaky on his legs and the inscription:

THIS IS HOW YOG GO IF YOG DRINK MILK

1005 ős Bisztró Snack-Bar no. 1005

X. Gyömrői út 39

A pub wedged in between behemoth factories, with several types of very cheap draught beer. From the tap-room we cross into a spacious garden, part of which is covered with one of those plastic roofs. An old man in a postman’s cap sells newspapers; at the back by the garden wall people are pitching coins beside the barbecue stall. A red chalk line runs across the asphalt.

The No. 17 bus is coming, you can see it trundle past the Magnezit disco through the garden gate.

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