In 2019 a Taco Bell opened on Dyckman Street. No longer would Inwood residents have to leave the neighborhood to sample Double Chalupas, Quesaritos, and Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes.
But—decades ago—diners in this uptown commercial space craved items from a wildly different menu.
Various waves of immigration in the 1940s and 1950s lent an eastern European flavor to Inwood’s dining scene.
And—in the early 1970’s—175 Dyckman Street was host to the Transylvania Restaurant; which specialized in Hungarian and German dishes.
The Dyckman Street eatery was the sister restaurant of the popular Tik Tak Hungarian Restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Despite a name change, Tik Tak specialties were “still goulashes, paprikas and schnitzels served in gargantuan portions” when reviewed in 1975. (NYT’s, June 27, 1975)
Other menu items from the Transylvania Restaurant’s sister establishment included brains with scrambled eggs, onions and paprika, Wiener schnitzel, veal shank, mushroom fritters with tartar sauce, hash browned potatoes and a full list of Hungarian wines.
The menu, while tasty, was not for the timid. “Nobody watching his weight,” the Times warned, “would be fool enough to come here.”
Sage advice that likely holds true today.
