Bonus trip · Underground Walk
Boci tejivó
Zrínyi utca 2, on the corner of Somogyi utca · milk bar from 1996 · the old Sörkert beer garden next door
Curd noodles at 5:30 a.m. in a basement, served by a counter clerk in a calf-print cap. And in the car park next door, for one summer the whole city sat in a beer garden.
From 1958 Szeged had milk bars (tejivó), on Széchenyi tér and on Somogyi utca, opposite the Fekete ház. Rice pudding, semolina pudding, curd dumplings, cocoa rolls; a portion of rice pudding cost 3.30 forints. The Somogyi utca milk bar was a half-underground vaulted room. It closed in 1988.
In 1996 the Boci tejivó (“Calf milk bar”) opened on the corner of Zrínyi utca and Somogyi utca, down a flight of stairs in the basement. It was one of the attempts to bring milk bars back.
Cow pictures on the walls, prize-winning children's drawings of calves at the entrance, staff in calf-print shirts and caps. On Friday and Saturday nights it stayed open until 5:30 a.m., so after parties anyone hungry came down here.
According to Délmagyar, the students' favourites were meat pancakes, fruit soup and curd dumplings. After a long night, curd noodles were recommended for the stomach.
Right next door, in the car park behind the Somogyi Library, was the Sörkert (“Beer Garden”). A 2010 review says the whole city sat there regardless of age or gender: benches, plastic cups, flip-flops, foosball tables, the football World Cup on a projector. The cheapest draught beer started at just over 300 forints, and the reviewer found it watered down. For food, he recommended the Boci.
A hotel was built on the car park. In 2010 the landowner still promised there would be a pub too. In summer 2011 the Boci closed for a month because the hotel going up next door had to build a firewall, cutting off the entrance. The owner said the area looked “as if a medium-sized bomb had been dropped”.
Since then the Boci has closed for good. The sources don't agree on when: one says 2010, yet in summer 2011 the news was still about its summer closure.
Open in the app →Animated scene, old photos, stamps and the full map. Free, nothing to install.Facts and labels
- TrueOpened in 1996; on Friday and Saturday nights it stayed open until 5:30 a.m.
- TrueNext door, in the car park behind the Somogyi Library, was the Sörkert beer garden. A hotel stands there today.
- Half true“It closed in 2010.” One source says so, but in summer 2011 there were still reports of its one-month closure.
- Open questionThe old Somogyi utca milk bar was also opposite the Fekete ház, half underground. Was it the same basement as the Boci's?