Lunch at Mocca Hungarian Restaurant, A Stroll To The Met and Ice Cream At Ciao Bella

In the winter of 1975 I came to New York City to work on a masters degree in graphic design at Pratt Institute. I had been in love with this town since 1965 when my parents and I drove up here from our farm in Missouri for a vacation. I was 15 then.

We stayed at the Howard Johnson's on 8th Avenue, went on a Greyline tour of the city and took in a Broadway show... "Mame"...starring Angela Landsbury.

I fell in love with New York so hard I thought springs might start popping out of my head. Back on the farm, I filled out the subscription form that was in the New Yorker Magazine we had bought during the trip...probably the first farm boy from Henry County, Missouri ever to do so. Each time an issue came I'd read the little capsule description of Mame in the theatre section...I'd seen that!

So, in 1975, I enrolled in my classes at Pratt, and began, or I guess continued, the biggest and longest running love affair of my life...NEW YORK!

Over the years I've had the great good fortune to find a number of places to eat in this town that are truly wonderful...and not expensive. The best ones, in the most interesting neighborhoods will make up this column each month.

The places I'll write about cost under $10 per person (not counting tax, tip, wine/liquour), and are located in areas of New York that may be off the beaten path...places that may not be in the theatre district, for example. Places I'd like you to feel a part of...for a lunch or what may become a lifetime.

The lunches covered will usually be followed by a recommended stroll through the surrounding neighborhood and then perhaps a suggestion for dessert and/or coffee, or some other treat.

I've found that the best days for lunch in New York are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Museums are usually closed on Mondays (i.e. the Met) and Wednesdays are still matinee days and attract more people to the city. And on Saturdays and Sundays, you won't feel like you have the City to yourself.

After nearly 25 years in New York here is my first suggestion:

MOCCA HUNGARIAN RESTAURANT
1588 2nd Avenue (82nd and 83rd Sts.)
212 734-6470

About three years ago I woke up on a Saturday morning with...there's no other word for it...a hangover. I'd "accidently" had too much to drink the night before. A friend and I had caroused around and, at the time, it all seemed normal: a couple of drinks, a little red wine with dinner, and then (I think this is where the "accident" happened), we had cognac.

To this day, I still think the punishment was cruel and unusual... because this was a snarling, hideous, beast of a hangover. I pulled myself out of bed, drank some coffee (which didn't work) and walked up 5th Avenue to the Metropolitan Museum where I took a "headphone" tour of a Dali exhibit. The last painting was the one with the melting clocks...and I thought...Damn! ...that's just how I feel. Then I thought a visit to the gym might help. I rode the Lifecycle (are they crazy?) for 24 minutes and then struggled with the weights (as I always do anyway) and felt a little better...steam and sauna helped some more. Then, it hit me!

I was so hungary I was ready to snatch squirhrefs out of the trees in Central Park and eat them right on the spot. Lucky for the squirhrefs I found myself heading down 2nd Avenue and, at 82nd street, I nearly ran into the blackboard on the sidewalk that features the specials of the day of:

Mocca Hungarian Restaurant!

...three courses

Soup! Goulash! Dessert! Coffee!

I could feel an angel flapping around somewhere...Harp Music!

I was sitting at a table inside within 5 seconds ...where I was immediately served a nice little complimentary dish of sliced beets and a basket of great hearty bread with a really pleasing mixture of butter, sour cream and paprika to spread on it.

I ate it all.

A cup of delicious homemade vegetable soup followed.

I inhaled it.

Then the waiter brought an entree of beef goulash with a side of nockerl...bright yellow Hungarian egg noodles that at first looked like cheese doodles.

Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!

Last was dessert... homemade palacsinta which is an apricot crepe dusted with powdered sugar followed by a nice cup of perfect hot coffee...all for $5.95!

The snarling hangover had now become a pitiful little single-cell life form that wouldn't even merit a children's asprin. If I'd been a dog, at that point...I would have been on my back swaying to the tune of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5!

My waiter..my savior...seemed to be more from the subcontinent than Hungary...so when I asked him, with my refound sense of humor, what part of Hungary he came from he grinned and said Bombay. When I asked him how they could do all of this for $5.95, he, still smiling, said you could get twice as much at dinner for $10.95!

Mocca, at 1588 2nd Ave between 82nd and 83rd Streets has been serving the Yorkville neighborhood for nearly 20 years. It's owned and managed by Hungarians who run a very simple, exquisite ship. The place is decorated with multi-colored hexagonal marble tiles on the floor and quaint Hungarian crafts lining the walls between the wood paneling and old molded tin ceilings. You can hear Hungarian being spoken all over the place during lunch and dinner.

Now, the price of the lunch special, still three courses and coffee, has soared to to $6.45 (editor's note: prices have gone up since this article was written, but it's still a bargain), including soup or juice and entrees of chicken paprikash with nockerl, stuffed pepper, veal paprikash, wiener schnitzel, stuffed cabbage and spare ribs Mocca style. I asked Elizabeth, who manages the place, what the base of the cooking is. She told me the soups start with a roux (called a rantas in Hungarian) of flour, paprika and vegetable oil. While the entrees aren't exactly fat free, your heart shouldn't feel the need to escape out the back door. The portions aren't whale-size at lunch...just enough food to make you feel like tackeling life again.

Almost everything at Mocca has lots of paprika in it. Paprika is a mild, powdered seasoning made from sweet peppers and is a deep orange/red in color. By itself it sort of tastes like ground tree bark. But at Mocca, its subtle flavor is released by slow cooking. This cooking begins every day at between 5-6:00 AM and continues until the last serving...which is around 10:30PM.

I've never needed a reservation at Mocca. But, as a courtesy, it never hurts to call ahead. It is wheel chair accessible since the restaurant is all on the ground floor.

Yorkville and Area & Ice Cream!
The surrounding neighborhood, Yorkville, is still home to a dwindling yet strong Hungarian community...with its own churches and food stores. Stroll around the area after lunch and then head five blocks west, on 82nd street where you will wind up at the Metropolitan Museum on 5th Avenue. The walk over to and through the museum helps settle your wonderful lunch at Mocca.

Then, a few blocks north of the Met, you should treat yourself to an ice cream at Ciao Bella, at 27 East 92nd at Madison Avenue.

Ciao Bella produces much of the ice cream served at such New York food meccas as Nobu and the Lobster Club...with specialty flavors like red bean and vanilla malt ball.

So, there you have it. Lunch at Mocca Hungarian Restaurant, a stroll over to the Met, and an ice cream at Ciao Bella. What a deal!

Remember...you can always stick with me...because I'm out to lunch in New York.

Clint Brownfield