London’s Gay Hussar reopens after two years under a new name

The legendary Gay Hussar restaurant of SoHo, which featured authentic Hungarian dishes, closed in 2018, 65 years after its opening. The place reopened this fall, with a new name and an updated menu.

The restaurant was actually founded by a British man, a child of a Swiss sailor and a Welsh mother. However, he studied Hungarian cuisine for seven years, after he was sent by the Association of British Restaurants to intern at a Budapest restaurant, the Gundel in 1932, 444 reported.

After returning to London, he opened his very first restaurant, called Budapest, when he was just 24. He kept visiting Budapest a lot during the war, but that might have been because the British Intelligence had recruited him.

Gay Hussar was opened in 1953, with a dark yet charming interior, and two private rooms, which were the perfect spots for plotting, and the place quickly became favoured by the leaders of the Labour Party, as well as left-wing journalists and intellectuals. But the restaurant was also popular amongst artists, Tories, and according to legend, this is where PM Margaret Thatcher’s colleagues planned to overthrow her.

Story has it that Labour PM Tom Driberg persuaded Mick Jagger to run in the party in the 60s and that he also tried to seduce Jagger, which made the singer leave the restaurant.