A Poor Porker

Welcome to the Poor Porker

Driving back from that terrible car show, I drove past a restaurant called The Poor Porker. It was an odd looking place behind a rather ramshackle fence. It was closed when I went by, but based on the name, I thought it must have been a Barbecue spot, and I decided to look it up on the Internet and check out their menu.

Turns out the old expression “What’s in a name?” means nothing in this case and I was completely wrong about what

Nothing in the fridge

the Poor Porker was . . . . . No Barbecue, no pulled pork, no ribs . . . . . beignets.  . . . Seriously, what does “Poor Porker” have to do with Beignets?

The Name did however peek my interest, and I decided to check the place out. It was right off Main St. so easy to walk to, and we wandered down on a tour around town with friends. The place was not open, but you could peer through the fence/hedge. There was actually no actual “Restaurant” building. It was an open lot with a food truck at one end, a sort of garage/barn on one side and a tiny travel trailer with an open side in the corner. Oh . . . and a teepee set up in the middle. Now I definitely wanted to return when they were open.

Play a tune . . .

First, those Beignets were delicious! Puffy delicate fried dough covered with your sweet toping of choice. The place itself reminded me of the Ruin Pubs we visited in Budapest, a strange collection of junk forming a unique interesting setting. You entered through a big industrial corrugated steel gate. In one corner was a hammock and an odd mix of chairs. Scattered all over the lot were quaint seating areas created from disjointed elements. Wooden dining chairs, metal outdoor furniture, kitchen set chairs, children’s toy chairs. I do not think there was a pair of matching chairs in the place. You could sit inside the teepee, inside the travel trailer or under mismatched umbrellas around the yard. There was one half a rusted jeep, a rusting refrigerator, animal skulls on walls and a stack of lumber in one corner. In fact everywhere you looked was some other odd item. If you went back 10 times I think you would notice something different every time.

And OMG those beignets were delicious !

Order your Begnets here

A different spot to sit and enjoy your treat

Nope these are not "porkers"

A jeep, well beyond restoration

RuinPubs

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Take a tumbled down old building and turn it into a night club and you have one of the most popular attractions in Budapest. And when I say “Turn it into a night club”, I do not mean renovate it, I mean make the ruin the club. Bring in bands, furnish it with whatever old recycled furniture you can find, decorate the walls with whatever is available, and allow tagging anytime.

I think there is room for that old Communist era car in the courtyard; cut the roof off and make it a booth.

Hey that is pretty weird – perfect!

After that, anything goes; find something odd eccentric, weird or cool and use it to decorate.

There you go, Budapest’s RuinPubs.

The original and most popular RuinPub, hosts a Farmers Market on Sunday mornings, so we went exploring and found it to have a look. It is pretty hard to describe, but “Ruin Pub” does it pretty well. The building was originally a ruin, and it has not been fixed up other than to stabilize things. It is open to the sky in the courtyard, and the rooms are open to the courtyard. There are actually two cars parked inside being used as booths. Scattered throughout are rooms with chairs sofas, stools and tables of all styles and colors. There are actually some painting hanging on the walls, but much of the décor is pure graffiti and proud of it. There is a wrecked piano hanging in one stairwell, a table made from VHS tapes, a bathtub converted to a couch. Everywhere you look is something else amazing.

It was nice to go on Sunday for the market because I could wander around snapping pictures. I can only imagine what it must be like at night time. We will definitely go back to see.

The pictures I have chosen only give a glimpse into the Ruin Pub scene in Budapest, and this is only one; there are lots of them, some even bigger than this.