Remember these two things are true for this column: There is no place like home. And there is no goulash like Mary Ann’s.
Ah, some of us remember the goulash. We reflected on the satisfying, flavorful soup. Times changed and Mary Ann retired. The goulash was gone like a puff of smoke.
Yet, for a brief and shining moment, it was back. Steaming bowl of goulash with a slice of rye bread. All served up with funny and heartfelt stories and bits of wisdom.
For years, Mary Ann and Albert Mostaert owned Albert’s Bar on Lincoln Way West in South Bend. It was a neighborhood place with a far-ranging customer base from city workers, business people, University of Notre Dame administrators and students, and The Tribune.
Mary Ann controlled the kitchen and produced the much-beloved goulash with potatoes, celery, onions and cubed beef. All in a broth with undisclosed spices. Was it only paprika?
“The recipe is in every cookbook,” Mary Ann said. “I experimented with spices.”
She claims no one knows the special recipe.
Albert ran the bar and conversed (yelled) at Mary Ann. The entertainment and food brought in the crowds from 1963 to 1993. Today, the building is part of Gene’s Camera.
“I don’t like to go by it now,” Mary Ann said. “It is too sad.”
As for cooking, “I made gallons of goulash every week,” she said while indicating that the cooking pot was huge. “At that time, I had a pressure cooker and that did speed it up. I got to work at 7 a.m. and was there until 1 a.m. We were open seven days a week.”
Following the closure of the bar and restaurant, there were a few years of traveling and gardening before Albert died in 2009.
The saga continued when Mary Ann had a few medical issues and decided to move to Arizona to spend retirement years in the sun with her daughter Cathy Strack.
With the move in 2021, Mary Ann left with the goulash recipe. The people clamored for one more serving, but it wasn’t in the cards.
In Arizona, the weather was warm, but there were too few friends.
“I didn’t know anyone in Arizona,” Mary Ann said. “I was quilting, going to church and coming home. We lived like hermits.”
Back home, a special birthday
However, the Midwest and family were calling her home last fall. Mary Ann and her daughter Cathy decided to move from Mesa, Ariz. Mother and daughter live together along with Carolyn Aranowski, Mary Ann’s sister.
It makes for a lively household.
Recently, with a little nudging from friends from the retired wing of The Tribune newsroom and the South Bend Press Club, Mary Ann made a pot of goulash.
The Saturday noon lunch turned into a stroll down memory lane and a birthday party for the chef and owner. Mary Ann celebrated her 95th birthday on March 23. With a few pointed questions, she was retelling the best bar stories from serving celebrities to an armed robbery.
“I met Albert at a dance at St. Stanislaus Church,” she said. “We were married in 1953. I didn’t know a thing about cooking or bars.”
She was doing office work and she left that behind. She married into a family of bar owners. Her father-in-law owned Happy’s Bar in the 300 block of Chapin Street. A brother-in-law owned the Parkview Tavern.
Mary Ann recalled her patrons from government and Notre Dame coaches. “The wait was too long for Digger Phelps, so he came back and cooked his own hamburger. Gov. Ed Whitcomb brought me roses on Dyngus Day.”
She called Tribune photographer Ed Ballotts to tell him she made stuffed peppers. The kitchen stayed open for the late shift from WNDU-TV and WSBT-TV.
“Some of the Notre Dame students came in and didn’t have money,” she said. “They bounced a check to eat. We wouldn’t let them go hungry.”
Years later, a student came back to repay the $10 bounced check with interest. “Albert wouldn’t take the interest. Albert gave him the bad check,” she said. Things turned out well for the former student. He had a big-time job and a private plane.
All these years, what is your secret?
“I walk. I sew quilts to keep me busy. I have lots of friends,” Mary Ann said. “People ask me what keeps me going. I tell them I want to give Albert a little more quiet time before I’m buried next to him.”
As for business, “I miss the people even now. About 99% were wonderful,” she said. “We had a man who came and sat at the bar for lunch every day. He complained about everything, the food, the service. Albert asked why he didn’t go elsewhere for lunch. He said he liked it here.”
And another thing, Mary Ann has no plans to reveal the secret to the goulash. So don’t ask.
Contact Kathy at kfborlik@yahoo.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: A birthday party includes a special batch of South Bend bar’s goulash
Reporting by Kathy Borlik, Columnist / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
