There are times when nothing appeals like an evening of Hungarian food and Gypsy music and a heavy dash of “schmaltz.” In just such a mood we trekked, my very sophisticated fellow snooper and I, up the hill to 82nd Street and Second Avenue to the Café Tokay. I am just naturally a pushover for cimbalom and Gypsy violin and accordion and the sweet teariness of the music such ensembles pour forth, so I was completely sold after five minutes. Not so my fellow diner. She succumbed only after at least ten minutes. However, it all ended by our staying a good three and a half hours and being completely Magyarized by the time we left. There is a constant swirl of music until around nine o’clock, when there are two Gypsy singers, and after that the Gypsy orchestra goes into dance rhythms—all with that slightly weepy quality.
The dinner menu, which embraces the usual Hungarian specialties, is amazingly reasonable. Dinners run from ＄2.10 to ＄3.50. Mr. Arthur Nagy, the owner of the restaurant, prides himself upon the fact that he is presenting good, homey cooking. His chef is a woman, and she seems to supervise everything that goes out. We wish, however, that they would not startle us by listing Manhattan clam chowder on a menu of otherwise fairly representative Hungarian dishes.
The high point of the food is the pastry tray. That has been a specialty of the house for a long time, and it is evidently the chief culinary attraction for the majority of the patrons. The pastry is prepared under the master hand of Bela Lehoczky, who is also a partner in the business.
We can best describe the pastry by relating the sight we viewed while dining. A large and rather overfed-looking gentleman arrived with a lady and, after he had settled himself comfortably into one of the booths, adjusted his napkin, and ordered his drinks, demanded that the pastry tray be brought to the table. He was evidently known, for two waiters practically broke their necks to get a tray to his table at once. From that moment until time for his dessert, we watched him eat pastries through appetizer, soup, chicken paprika, and salad. At that point, we lost count. I have never tried a nut strudel with chopped chicken livers nor a Napoleon with chicken paprika, but it may be a perfect food experience.
You will find a most interesting selection of Hungarian wines at the Tokay. We chose with our dessert a bottle of Tokay Aszu 1936, 4 puttonos. That, if you do not already know, is the gauge of the degree of sweetness. It was wine of magnificent body, rich in flavor, and glorious in color, a most delightful change, and a wine with a most distinctive aftertaste. My dinner partner, who loves good wine as few people do, but who is trying to watch the waistline, swore she would taste only a tiny glass but was moved after the first glass to toss all discretion into 82nd Street.
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