Greeted by a bigger-than-life-size Hungarian alien cowboy tending his grey cattle and his pals in a UFO, my FUNZINE colleague and I stumbled (not literally) into Port H, a brand spankin’ new bar bursting with retro relics.
What, you say? Alien cowboys? Well, we at FUNZINE may pretend that foreigners are aliens, but the real story is this: Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist Enrico Fermi was once asked if he believed in extra-terrestrials and he said, “Yes, they are already here among us. They are called Hungarians.”
Hence the Hungarian cowboy with an alien head at the entrance to Port H, which takes you into a world of the weird – yes, Hungary in the 1970s and 80s was weird. And cool. Choose from three underground rooms, reflecting the Magyar flag – red, white and green. We chose red, drawn by the wallpaper featuring my Hungarian colleague’s favorite Magyar product: the hot paprika paste called Erős Pista (he puts it on EVERYTHING).
The bar is lined with old red milk crates, the drinks are stored in socialist-style metal lockers, and the lamps are old red funnels and sieves. Tiny TVs (remember when TVs were small?) show footage of the Hungary of days gone by, trivia and tall tales (hey, sounds like our Did You Know? page!) revved up by young filmmakers. A slick metal Ikarus 55 logo adorns the wall, and you wonder once again why a Hungarian busmaker would’ve named itself after a mythological loser whose wax wings melted in the sun? Nevermind, I’d still put the logo on my living-room wall…
Anyway, we had a couple of Sea Breezes (with cranberry instead of grapefruit juice, try it) and a scrumptious dish of grilled goat cheese with a fresh salad with dried pears. They’ve got absolutely everything to drink here, and the menu’s full of Hungarian stuff revamped for 21st-century tastes. Similarly, the DJ pumps out tunes new and old, retro and remixed, Hungarian and not, from an alcove opposite the red room’s bar.
The only problem was there weren’t too many people there… but that’s because the place had just opened a few hours earlier. Hey, this way, we get to call it that place we discovered… and you will too, if you get there soon…
Port H
Tel.: +36.1.351.8406