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I
will always remember my time in Hungary with affection.
Of course there were good times and there were bad
times. In the same light there were lots of friends
and lots of good guys. Inevitably there were a few
apparent friends who turned out to be bad guys and
there were just bad guys: but that is life.
This is not an attempt to correct wrongs, or make
retribution: after this time it truly would be a
dish that is now cold. Instead I will dwell for
a minute on the good times. |
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| In February 1990 I
drove with my then partner Lord Toad to Warsaw, Budapest
and Prague. The idea was to look for business opportunities
in the newly “freed” countries of Eastern
Europe. We never did anything there together, but
nine months later I was back in Budapest and Prague
looking for a business opportunity in my given trade:
pubs and restaurants. After a very nice man: formerly
an employee of The Czechoslovakian secret police,
had explained to me over several large (and expensive)
whiskies that in order for me to succeed on Prague
I would need to employ him on a not insignificant
retainer, I decided to try Budapest. |
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| Budapest was crawling,
as was Prague, with aspiring entrepreneurs some independent
but many from multi nationals and aspiring multi nationals.
Into this fray I leapt and before long was on the
trail of an ideal premise in the city centre, once
the offices of a state organization. The nice man
I was dealing with insisted upon drinking his mother’s
palinka (home made eau de vie) for breakfast and insisted
that I join in. |
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| In the end we signed
an agreement of a joint venture in principal. I had
a good Christmas back in the UK before returning to
Hungary at the very beginning of 1991 with the intention
of getting my new business off the ground. But as
I soon found out the realities of signing an agreement
and the realities of getting a business going were
about as far apart as London and Budapest. |
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| Thus frustrated it
was with alacrity that I grabbed the offer to help
out with the newly open, and first in Eastern Europe,
English language paper: The Budapest Week. I had two
good years there until: the dish is now far to cold
to go back over that. However I had started writing
articles and gained a good reputation as an interesting
and amusing writer. That was to serve me well as I
then lived as a freelance restaurant writer. I dabbled
for a while with various business opportunities but
none seemed to be quite right. |
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| I stayed long enough
to see Eastern Europe develop from a moribund communism
to something approaching capitalism: capitalism which
did not necessarily provide for the majority. It had
become a demand economy all right: but you needed
money to make the demand! However the new economies
were geared to the people of that country and my English
language writing was directed at the ex-pats which
were being replaced by locals. So it became time to
move on. I never mind moving on: I have done it all
my life as a publican/restaurateur. It that trade
they always used to say: one year to get to know the
business, one year to get it right and one year to
make maximum profits. It seldoms get better than that
3rd year and by year 5 moving on is probably the wisest
move. I left Eastern Europe after 6 years: a very
good time to move on! |
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On
the left are the titles of the various Hungarian
and regional articles published in Budapest. There
is also a link to Warsaw
to read those articles. I have tried to find general
articles from Hungary that to an extent cover recent
history, whereas Warsaw is mainly about dining. |
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| Fine Dining in: |
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