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

faded photographs, at least thirty years old, giving a birds’ eye view of the Budapest of my childhood.

“ Jeney” Pikkelyhal Vendéglő

Jeney Scalefish Restaurant

I. Markouits utca 4

Jeney was a famous water-polo player. His restaurant is on the Iskola utca side of the Tornai house, in the same block as the former Tornai café in Markovits Iván utca; that was named after its owner, Mr Tornai, who lived in the block. Later it was renamed Budai Vigadó Eszpresszó. When I was young, the poet Zoltán Zelk used to sit in the Tornai smoking cigars, while 1 sat on his knee eating little iced cakes for one forint twenty and marzipan bananas for one fifty. 1 was there when two men took Auntie Edit away from beside the brown glazed tile stove. Cincié Zoli explained that they were taking her for a compulsory wash.

Csarnok Söröző Market-Hall Beerhouse

I. Batthyány tér 5

This is in the block that houses the market-hall at Batthyány tér. When 1 was a kid it used to be called Kossuth Híd Vendéglő (Kossuth Bridge Restaurant). 1 was given twenty forints for my lunch and had to give an account of the change. Today it looks like a forest lodge, with beams plainly in evidence, a dusky atmosphere even in daytime, beer on tap, box-partitions. There are two little tables seating two persons only behind the plate-glass window from where, ignoring the few remaining trees on Batthyány tér, you can get an almost unobstructed view of the other side of the river and the Houses of Parliament. These are my favourite tables. With a pint or two of beer or a cup of coffee, you can read and contemplate your surroundings for as long as it pleases you. In the summer white galvanized iron tables are placed on the sidewalk before the windows in the little nook enclosed by the corner of the Casanova Bar (formerly Fehér Kereszt Vendégfogadó,

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