Bodor Ferenc: Coffee-Houses - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1992)

Rozmaring (rosemary)

At one time, on Sztálin—Magyar Ifjúság — Népköztársaság — Andrássy út, there were cafés facing each other: the Brazil and the Rozmaring. Like Laurel and Hardy in America, Hac- sek and Sajó in Hungary, Hepe and Hupa, FTC and MTK (rival football teams). It was in these cafés that football fans collected, given that the Football Association was housed nearby, to the great satisfaction of party workers. When the ball swerved into the upper left hand corner of the AVH (State Security Authority) team’s net off Puskás Öcsi’s left foot, the leather- coated, thick-soled storm-troopers of the inner circle muttered and clicked their tongues angrily. When the people were in power, tickets to international matches were distributed at the work place among the best workers. Leftover tickets were swapped and sold in these cafés; you could also get tips for the football pools. There is no market for tickets today, no one gets worked up over football any more. The Brazil, despite much protest, has become a French brasserie, though it would be a good place to dance the lambada in. The Rozmaring is still there, minus its team-recruiters, retaining only its neon sign from those classical times.

46 ANDRÁSSY ÚT, VI.

ROZMARING— without football players

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