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I
am not sure what is the most surprising aspect about
this article. For a publican, five years in one
place is a long time, my various English teachers
would be more than surprised and many of my regular
readers, over the last five years, may wonder how
I have gotten away with out serious assault on my
person. In spite of all the contrary omens, somehow
it has happened, and this article celebrates five
years of Sam Worthington in print.
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It all started when my desire to open
a pub/restaurant fell foul of the myriad bureaucratic
traps set to ensure investors spent all their money
on hotels, local lawyers and fees before getting fed
up and vacating their hotel room for the next victim.
Unless you had multi-national deep pockets the system,
or lack of it, won. So I turned from poacher to gamekeeper.
My earlier articles, in the Budapest Week, were published
under the guise of the Nightwatchman. With this name
I had little choice but to trundle round the various
late night bars and bordellos in a desperate search
of value for money. Then I spent much of the Summer
of 1991 rushing round Lake Balaton actually enjoying
myself, in an appallingly naff sort of way. Unfortunately
Balaton is a bigger disaster area now. In those days
it was cheap, nasty and fun. Now it is expensive,
nasty and boring! |
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| The first two years reminded me of London
in the sixties. There was a vibrancy and expectation
of so much to come. This was particularly true as
new privately owned bars, night clubs and finally
restaurants opened replacing worn out and stale state
run operations. The earlier places normally lacked
concept and management expertise, and thus often went
as fast as they arrived as enthusiasm was not enough,
and the 'Want a Mercedes tomorrow' mentality striped
the already insufficient cash flow. |
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One of the first major restaurant reviews
I did was of a restaurant called the Frutta da mare.
In November 1991 I paid Ft.4,665 for what I described
then as 'one of the worst restaurant meals I have
ever consumed.' A few months later the restaurant
management insisted I return and re-review the restaurant
since my pervious review had ruined their business.
I returned and had a worse meal. The Frutta da mare
was located on the site of the New York bagel shop
opposite Arany Janos metro!
I got into terrible trouble with the American women's
club for suggesting, in my year end review of 1991,
that bordellos were ruining their trade by being unfriendly
places that they were pricing themselves out of business.
That trend has only gotten worse and by the end of
1992 I was commenting that it was cheaper to go to
Bangkok than visit the night club, of that name, in
Budapest. |
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| The second half of 1992 was when the
mould was broken in more ways than one. The first
pub, the Fregatt, finally got some competition with
the opening of Chicago and Winstons; something like
a western style restaurant was provided by Amadeus;
Gundel reopened and promised a great deal; the arrival
of the Kempinski hotel elevated hotel standards; as
did the Oreg Molom hotel which opened and provided
something that is still few and far between, a decent
country house hotel, and I, with Steve Carlson, published
the first good food guide. The opening of the Las
Vegas casino provided the party of the year with real
Hollywood glitz. |
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| By the end of 1993 the Irish Cat, and
other pubs, had reduced the once packed Fregatt to
a friendly local bar; the sale of Pannonia hotels
was happening; and I was moving from Budapest Week
to the more directed BBJ with a brief to write about
restaurants and not underdressed lonely ladies. |
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| By the end of 1994 my year end review
was about the best rather than the new, although he
arrival of Beckets (bar and now sauna) had changed
many ex-pats drinking habits. 1995 produced a rash
of good and different restaurant openings late in
the year, just as I was wondering what had happened
to the evolution of the restaurant business. |
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| I suppose the most surprising aspect
of the scene today is the comparative lack of foreign
owned, and managed, restaurants and bars. A visit
to Prague, and even to Warsaw, sees successful ex-pat
run operations. Here and there are a few, but even
they seem to drift back to Hungarian standards. There
are still remarkably few restaurants trying to produce
food that is far away from the norm that I call Hungarian
international and there are still only a handful of
restaurants that would compete in most capital cities.
However on the contrary there is the enormous success
of the pub concept and imported beers, particularly
Guinness which now boasts nearly eighty draught beer
outlets in Hungary. |
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The sixties feel went years ago, and
we have been through the seventies, so I suppose that
by the end of the millennium the catch up, with those
to the West, will be about complete. Which is interesting
because in 1990 most said it would take a few years,
however a few cautioned with forecasts of ten years.
Later in this year I will be publishing a selected
collection of my articles over the last five years,
and one day I may go back to poacher and that all
elusive pub may actually happen. But in the meantime
I will just trundle on and hope that I have as much
fun in the next five years as I have had in the last
five. Thank you Hungary.
C YA
Note:
I never did that book and I suppose part of the
website is doing just that! Shortly after this I
moved on and did open that pub! |
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