Table of contents:
- Coveted table in the restaurant
- Elite elite
- The restaurant is not for everyone
- The stormy life of Astoria
- Universal pass
- Menu
- Tipping in Soviet style
Video: "We were the first to stand in line ": Soviet-era Moscow restaurants
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Moscow restaurants and cafes. What they were like in Soviet times. In this review, we invite our readers to take a virtual trip in time and visit various drinking establishments in the capital - famous and not so. Someone will find themselves in an unfamiliar world, and someone will refresh their memories.
Coveted table in the restaurant
In Soviet times, restaurants and cafes were relatively affordable entertainment. Engineers, teachers, doctors - people with a salary of 150-200 rubles could afford such a meal. In 1960-70, the assortment of dishes was quite wide: meat and fish dishes, julienne, caviar, cakes. But as some products began to become scarce, the restaurant menu also became scarce. True, at that time people rarely went to restaurants and even cafes “just”, more often on significant or memorable occasions. And each such trip was a real event.
But even the availability of money was not a guarantee that a person would get to a restaurant if he wanted to. Quite often, visitors saw on the doors signs “No seats” or “Restaurant on special service”. Sometimes there were long queues at the doors of restaurants. Particularly assertive people managed to knock on the door, shove three rubles to the porter who looked out and get a seat at the coveted table. But this did not always work: if important guests were expected in the restaurant, then the doormen indifferently turned away from the offering.
Elite elite
The Metropol restaurant, located on Marx Avenue (now Teatralny Proezd), was not just an elite restaurant, but the most respectable drinking establishment in the capital with the best cuisine and well-trained service staff. It was extremely difficult to get there, as well as to the restaurant "Prague" on the Arbat, famous for its Czech cuisine, or to the "Slavianski Bazaar", where most of the dishes of Russian cuisine were served.
All these restaurants were still pre-revolutionary. The exception was Seventh Heaven. In 1967 the restaurant "ascended" to a height of over 30 meters. It was also hard to get into it. The restaurant was located on the Ostankino tower, moreover, it constantly revolved.
The restaurant is not for everyone
On Gorky Street, which is now called Tverskaya Street, there was another well-known Moscow restaurant called "Aragvi" - a place for famous and well-to-do people. The restaurant was primarily famous for its Caucasian dishes. The halls were decorated with panels by the artist Irakli Toidze, the creator of the famous poster "The Motherland Calls!" This restaurant was once visited by Lavrenty Beria, Vasily Stalin, Faina Ranevskaya, Galina Vishnevskaya and Alla Pugacheva.
The stormy life of Astoria
Not far from "Aragvi" there was another equally famous restaurant with a very turbulent history - "Astoria". Most of the visitors went to it not so much to have a drink and a snack, but to listen to Beata Kochur singing in Russian and Polish. During the war, the restaurant was commercial. In it, the front-line soldiers who found themselves in the capital constantly drank their fear of the unknown in wine and vodka.
Subsequently, in the 40s, the restaurant was renamed "Central". Later, one of the episodes of the series "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" was filmed here, and in the film the restaurant was still called "Astoria". By the way about the famous TV series. His other episode with Manka-bond was filmed in the floating restaurant "Poplavka", famous for its narrow cabins. The establishment had a rather bad reputation. It was quite dirty here, the food was often stale, and the customers complained about the restaurant staff every now and then.
Universal pass
The first restaurant of Central Asian cuisine "Uzbekistan" was located on Neglinka and was incredibly popular. The institution was known primarily for its sweets and oriental dishes. By the way, cooks were only invited from Tashkent. But getting into this restaurant was quite problematic. More and more often, those who were already expected were allowed into it, and not those who were the first in the queue.
Actress Lyudmila Gurchenko recalled that in the summer of 1966, she and Vladimir Vysotsky and his friend Vsevolod Abdulov took the queue at Uzbekistan: “We stood endlessly. In front of us all passed and passed people in black suits … He behaved calmly. I was nervous, twitching: “Horror, eh? Rudeness! Isn't that true, Volodya? We are standing, and they are already, look! I wonder who they are?”Soon Vysotsky wrote a poem“We were the first to stand in line,”which included the following lines:
Not far from the Pushkinskaya metro station, where McDonald's has ruled for 25 years, the Lira cafe was previously located. This institution was truly cult in youth circles. We went here not so much to eat as to listen to music and dance. But it was extremely difficult for a common man to get into the Lyra. However, the question was decided by the cherished piece of paper to the doorman. Andrey Makarevich confirmed this in his song:
Menu
From the menu of the Shokoladnitsa cafe (Gorky Food Center) November 8, 1974 Broth, cheesecake with egg - 35 kopecks Pancakes with cottage cheese, chocolate sauce - 43 kopecks. Fried chickens with pickled fruits - 1 rub. 58 kopecks Bun - 3 kopecks. Cold coffee with whipped cream - 21 kopecks. Ice cream "Planet" - 51 kopecks. Tea without sugar - 2 kopecks. Champagne "Soviet" - 100 g - 68 kopecks. Wine "Tsinandali" - 100 g - 38 kopecks. Wine "Rkatsiteli" "- 100 g - 27 kopecks. The service charges 4% of the visitor's bill.
Tipping in Soviet style
At the other end of Tverskoy Boulevard was Kazbek, next to which there was also a Cinema of the repeated film. A cunning waiter nicknamed "Givi-satsivi" worked in this establishment for some time. Givi was always polite and helpful, he invoiced instantly, but he always joked for himself. Once Givi "ran into" an overly vigilant old man who arranged a demonstrative recount, and then promised to "take action."
What happened to "Givi" is unknown. They say that he disappeared for several years, and later returned and worked in another restaurant. It is fair to say that the waiters in many restaurants cheated. They fought with this "evil", but absolutely unsuccessfully.
For those interested in history, it will be interesting to see and 22 shots that allow you to look into the past.
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