When the Kapossy Hungarian Hour invited me to discuss my tavern research, I knew this would be different from other interviews. This wasn’t about explaining Hungarian immigrant history to outsiders—this was sharing stories with the community that lived them, whose grandparents sat at these very bars. After Budapest there were more Hungarians in Cleveland than in any other city in the world!
For 54 minutes, I had the honor of talking about places that many listeners remember firsthand: Mike Boros with his violin, the Gypsy Cellar with its cimbalom music, Settler’s Tavern where generations gathered. While not Hungarian, some listeners probably knew Mitzi Jerman, who was born above a tavern.
But what moved me most was describing what these taverns meant to the first wave of Hungarian immigrants. When I explained how they were afraid to speak Hungarian on Cleveland’s streets in the 1880s, how they faced ridicule for their clothing and customs, how they worked punishing hours for a dollar a day—I could feel the weight of that history. And then describing what happened when they walked into a Hungarian tavern: finally safe, finally heard, finally home.
That transformation—from fear to pride, from isolation to community—happened on Buckeye Road and the surrounding neighborhood.
Telling these stories to the Hungarian community itself felt sacred. This is their history. I’m just lucky enough to preserve it.