Home Sweet Home, Kurtos Chimney Cakes
It’s been seven years since Aniko Gulyas brought her famous kürtöskalács to the Sarasota Farmers Market as Kurtos Chimney Cakes. In November 2021, Gulyas gave the Hungarian delicacies the perfect brick-and-mortar home. The new Kurtos storefront is wedged between two coffee shops in the heart of downtown, off Main Street between Palm and Gulf Stream Avenues.
“We love the view. We love the people,” says Gulyas. “We have art festivals, and the parades end right here. This place is a blessing.”
Although Kurtos has had a storefront presence for almost three years, its newest location is panning out to be the best one yet. It includes a kitchen and 800 square feet of indoor guest space as well as an outdoor patio shared with another local favorite: O&A Coffee. Gulyas transformed the space into an open, fresh, and inviting venue, allowing guests to see the process unfold daily—from dough rolling to baking—and to enjoy the goodies in-house.
Gulyas started making kürtöskalács from a desire to bring fun memories from her childhood stateside to share with her children. Tapping into the knowledge of a fellow Hungarian living in Florida, she learned how to make the cakes, which consists of rolling the yeast-raised dough in two-foot-long strips of perfect thickness, delicately wrapping them around a wooden pin, basting them with butter and turbinado sugar (for sweet) and cooking them over an open grill. After baking “kurtos” for her family and friends—and developing a savory version of the 300-year-old recipe—Gulyas took the Kurtos concept to the Sarasota Farmers Market, where it remains every Saturday in addition to the Main Street storefront.
Now, in addition to the individually packaged sweet or savory cylindrical cakes, the downtown location allows the Kurtos team to offer a full menu of made-fresh-to-order meals including breakfast chimney paninis, savory sandwich chimney subs stuffed with vegetarian items, meats, and cheeses (try the Hungarian), and chimney dogs. Customers with a sweet tooth can go for a chimney cone filled with local Amish soft-serve ice cream. And with a larger kitchen in which to store ingredients, Kurtos now creates platters perfect for catering office lunches, parties, weddings, or baby showers.
Gulyas continues to be innovative with the new Kurtos location including an option to rent the space (after hours) for events like birthday or office parties. Plans are also in the works to add a small Hungarian market to a portion of the space, which would offer some of the specialty Hungarian ingredients Kurtos puts on the subs.
Although guests can continue to see Gulyas there every day—she’s still involved in all aspects of the business—she credits her team with the continued success of the business and new location.
“Every day we try to grow and learn, and I have an amazing team,” she says. “I could not do this alone. This is all of us working every day.”
Kurtos Chimney Cakes: 1312 Main St, Sarasota; 941-203-8541; kurtoscake.com.
