Zimmerman’s Budapest

“Hungarian cuisine par excellence.”

Zimmerman’s Budapest
c. 1930s*
Hungarian

Ownership:

Leopold Zimmerman

Location:

117 West 48th Street

Publications:

“Where to Eat in New York, Circa 1934.” Lost City. Blog, April 16, 2009.

Sakmyster, Thomas L. Red Conspirator: J. Peters and the American Communist Underground. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2011: 70.

Gardner, Hy. “Broadway Newsreel” (Interview with Bela Lugosi, April 5, 1939). Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 5, 1939: 12. [Reprinted in The Bela Lugosi Blog.]

“Going Places.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 11, 1935: 22. [Mentions performances by the “Royal Gypsy Orchestra under the direction of Charlie Cincey.”]

Notable Guests:

Bela Lugosi (Actor): “I don’t go to clubs very often. My favorite place is Zimmerman’s Budapest … I love to sit and eat Hungarian food and I could listen to Hungarian music all night.” (1)

J. Peters (Journalist, Activist, & Spy)

Notes:

The site of Zimmerman’s Budapest was once home to the Texas Guinan Club, run by actress and “Queen of the Night” Mary Louise Cecilia “Texas” Guinan and Larry Fay, “a Broadway hustler, nightclub owner, and mobster.” (2) Padlocked for the presence of alcohol during prohibition, the space later became the Chez Florence Club and passed through several names and managements before Zimmerman’s Budapest opened in the 1930s. By 1954, Hoy Yuen, a Chinese restaurant and cocktail lounge had replaced Zimmerman’s. The building was demolished to make way for 1221 Avenue of the Americas, completed in 1973 as part of the Rockefeller Center expansion.

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Conductor Sid Feller, known for his work with Ray Charles, played trumpet in the Hungarian orchestra at Zimmerman’s Budapest in 1938. (3)

Related Restaurants:

Zimmerman’s Hungaria (163 West 46th Street)

*The restaurant is confirmed to have been in existence (via newspaper advertisements) from 1933–1939.

(1) Gardner, 1939.
(2) Trachtenberg, Leo. “Texas Guinan: Queen of the Night.” City Journal, Spring 1998.
(3) “Sid Feller.” Space Age Pop Music. Accessed March 20, 2024.

Cover photo: “L. Zimmerman Restaurant. 117 West 48th St.. New York.” Postcard. In “1939: Second Chance, Second Thoughts.” Bela Lugosi Blog. Accessed September 15, 2018.