Bars in Budapest: Interview with Zoltan Nagy

Von Helmut Adam | Dezember 3, 2008 um 15:28 | 1 Kommentar | Bars, Interviews | Tags: Bar, Budapest, Cocktail, Hungary

Yesterday I discovered a group on Facebook that had been opened to find a new name for the Hungarian Mini bar, located in the Hungarian capital Budapest. I got in touch with owner Zoltan Nagy (who’s also been visiting this year’s Bar Convent Berlin by the way), to find out, why he was changing the name. He sent me back some interesting answers about the Hungarian barscene and the bar business projects he has been building up over the last couple of years. 

Zoltan, please introduce
yourself to our readers. How long have you been in the bar industry?
Zoltan: My name is Zoltan Nagy.
I live and operate in Budapest, for now. I got first in touch with bartending in England back in the year 2000. I worked in Kent in a
restaurant called Santa Fee for about 4 month. After that I moved to
London where I caught the bar bug. I discovered tastes I had never imagined
to exist before. I continued to work in several places, such as East West Restaurant
(not operating), Tiger Tiger, Cafe Boheme, Taman Gang and I think I have been
learning from the best of the best. 

The biggest influence I got from LAB bar, when it was under the management of John Gakuru. In March 2005 I
moved back to Budapest to discover that nothing had changed in the last few
years. My future plans had not included bartending at that point. Fortunately I couldn’t break
out of it, so in November 2005 I teamed up with a Hungarian bartender and got involved in catering bartending. We operate under the brand Absolutbar.

We have done some major
events here in Hungary together and he has realized the importance of training. It was a
hard nut to convince him, that there is life after Pina Colada and Long Island
Ice Teas, but finally I have managed and now I think we have unleashed some signature
cocktails on the Hungarian bar scene.

We have also started a
cocktail school called LAB (London Academy of Bartenders) with my girlfriend Lilla Kocsis.
She does also have a stunning professional record with previously working in places such as SAK Bar
(Greek street, not operating) and later Zeta Bar (Park Lane, Hilton). In our school we try to
teach bartenders to understand the spirits and the ingredients rather than
memorizing recipes.

I am glad to say that so far no brand has offered to sponsor us, but still
we have more than 600 different kind of spirits and liquors in the school. The
reason I think for not sponsoring is that we are rather new on the market. In the last 2 years we had a quite a few people learning at our school and most of them
are working in London now.

In 2008 we have
organized the first Hungarian Bar Show and also opened –  in my opinion – the first proper cocktail bar
in Budapest. Now you might be surprised by this statement, but believe me or
not, it is true. In our bar Mini Bar (that’s the name todate) we try to implement the English cocktail culture focussing on fresh
ingredients and very good quality spirits. Ever since, I’ve tried to
improve my skills and tried to motivate many other, not so fortunate bartenders.
Difficult task though.

Please tell us about the Hungarian bar scene. What is it like?

Hungarian Bar scene??? Hm, interesting: "About a dead person good or nothing", says a Hungarian proverb. I see it as very complacent. What do I
mean? It’s easy. People working behind the bar are not motivated, what so ever.
The competitions are useless. (I have been judging a few myself and I almost got
sugar poisoning.) No trainings involved and most importantly no interest from the
bartender side.

Here’s a little side story. We have been visiting a distillery recently, I do not want to mention names, because
it is well known company. I have organized about 11 bartenders (most of them
work with me and have finished our bartending school). At the end we realised, they knew a lot more
about the brand and the product than the person who guided us through the
distillery. I think that is not a good sign.

A typical bar scenario would be this order: "Two cuba libres and one long island
ice tea, but make it strong." Now I have never seen any bartenders to question
that order. Why? Because I think they are comfortable with it. They don’t have to
explain anything, they don’t have to convince anyone and mostly because they produce
around 200 a day, so it becomes a routine.

This is the main reason
I have opened my bar. I am proud to say that in the first 3 month of Mini Bar’s
life we have served only 2 Pina Coladas (the two women couldn’t be convinced otherwise) and
not more than 10 Cuba Libres. We see our bar as first of its kind. We want to teach people to drink and
enjoy what they are drinking. I hope we succeed.

And which
Hungarian bars do you recommend to visit?

Apart of my bar which is
Mini Bar in Paulay Ede u 5. VI. district, there are some, I recommend to visit
such as one called Martinez, in Vörösmarty utca 31., VI district. They do a
classic, Schumann-style bar with classical cocktails. Alos Bar Domby, a newly opened
bar, in the VI. district, Anker köz 2. Then there are Negro, Kreol, Oscar, Tom
George, but I’d recommend to visit these only for the interior design. I am not a pessimist, just
want to save you some money and some bad drinking experience.

When did you open Mini bar? And what’s the concept of your bar like?

Zoltan: As I have mentioned above I
have opened Mini Bar in the first week of September after a huge struggle with
the constructers (still at war). It is an English style
bar, minimal design, focussing on the drinking experience. We try to show and
promote the London bar culture with everything that it has to offer.

The place has two floors. On the first there is a nice laid back bar with a lot of
sofas and comfy seats, while on the basement it has been designed to be a small
club where you’re still to be able to have a very good cocktail. We have focused on two
things. One is the bar. Here, we try to stock as many spirits, as are
available in Hungary (quality spirits) and not focussing only on ones, that we sell. If someone wants to try a Japanese whisky, I want to be abler to serve him. And also to do the same, if someone
wants to know the difference between a Grey Goose or Belvedere.

The second is the staff. In our bar 4 people are working apart from us. I would like to show
them as much and as many style of bartending, as I can. Why? Because I believe
that one is able to develop a style of one’s own, as soon as a person has seen enough to know,
which one suits him or her the best.

So I hope I can have some of the best barmen from
England, Germany, Italy and the USA to come down to my place and give a
training. I also want to take them
along with me everywhere in Europe to see, learn and taste everything related to this
business. I give you few cocktail
names from our menu and I am sure you will know straight away what I am talking
about.

- Oranginha (Orange, pear palinka and hony served over
crushed ice)

- Orange
marmalady (Vodka with a hint of triple sec and extremely
hardshaken with a full spoon of orange marmalade)

- Basil
fresh (Lemon, basil and vodka in an easy going
threesome, for those who like weed)

Why do you have to change the name? Who makes you change it?

Zoltan: The place became Mini
Bar for one reason. Easy to remember and it is mostly the same pronounced in
every language around the globe. Now why do I have to
change it? Because someone plans to open a bar with the same name He has a
restaurant that opened 8 month ago and since then more than 160 people have been
working there. That’s a huge number, even in London standards, where everyone knows, that
fluctuation is very high. He is a person with a lot of influence on the
Hungarian media scene and he was clever enough to go to the Hungarian Patent
Office and get the rights for the name. Unfortunately!

This still wouldn’t be
such a big problem, but Budapest is very small town (2 million people) and I do not
want any confusion. I’m working hard and will continue to work hard
to become the best bar in Hungary by European standards. And I do not want
anyone to mistake my place for the one, that he operates. Simply do not want to
explain myself in front of anyone that my place is not the one here and there.

Thanks for the interview, Zoltan! And good luck with renaming your bar.