Nazdarovie - New retro-Soviet restaurant a nod to nostalgia for ties between Havana and Moscow

Nazdarovie: New retro-Soviet restaurant a nod to nostalgia for ties
between Havana and Moscow
Published August 23, 2014 Associated Press

In this Aug 20, 2014, photo, Matryoshka dolls and bottles of vodka sit
on display at the Nazdarovie restaurant during its pre-launch in Havana,
Cuba. Occupying the third story of a historic building on the seafront
Malecon boulevard, Nazdarovie is an homage to the old country. (AP
Photo/Ramon Espinosa) (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In this Aug 20, 2014, photo, a guest walks past near a reproduction of a
Soviet propaganda poster at the entrance to the Nazdarovie restaurant
during its pre-launch dress rehearsal in Havana, Cuba. Nazdarovie, named
for the popular Russian toast, serves Slavic fare like bowls of
blood-red borscht and stuffed Ukrainian varenyky dumplings, hand-rolled
in the back by "babushkas" who were born in the former Soviet Union but
have long called Cuba home. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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HAVANA – There's no rice, beans or fried plantains at Havana's newest
private restaurant. You can order a minty mojito, but it'll come mixed
with vodka instead of the traditional white rum.

The waiters speak Russian, and patrons are expected to order in that
language if they want to get served. But don't worry, the menus at this
retro-Soviet restaurant come with translations and pronunciation guides
for the non-initiated.

Nazdarovie, which is named for the popular Russian toast and opened
Friday, is all about Slavic fare like bowls of blood-red borscht and
stuffed Ukrainian varenyky dumplings, hand-rolled in the back by
"babushkas" who were born in the former Soviet Union but have long
called Cuba home.

It's a nod to nostalgia for the island's Soviet ties during the Cold
War, a time when Moscow was Havana's main source of trade and aid and
hundreds of thousands of Cubans traveled to the Soviet bloc as
diplomats, artists and students.

"For most of them it was the first time they ever left this island. They
have nostalgia about their time there, about the flavors they
experienced for the first time," said Gregory Biniowsky, a 45-year-old
Canadian of Ukrainian descent who dreamed up Nazdarovie and launched it
with three Cuban partners.

"The idea with Nazdarovie is really to celebrate a unique social and
cultural link that existed and to a certain degree still exists today
between Cuba of 2014 and what was once the Soviet Union," said
Biniowsky, a lawyer and consultant who has lived in Havana for two decades.

The collapse of the Soviet bloc largely ended the Havana-Moscow
connection and sent Cuba into an economic tailspin. However, Russian
President Vladimir Putin has talked recently of renewing the
relationship. He made a state visit last month, Russian navy ships
periodically dock in Havana's harbor and Cuba has backed Russia in its
dispute over Ukraine.

Occupying the third story of a historic building on the seafront Malecon
boulevard, Nazdarovie is an homage to the old country.

Behind the bar, Russian nesting dolls and a bust of Lenin perch next to
bottles of high-end vodka. Reproductions of Soviet propaganda posters
line one wall in an attempt to spark conversation among customers
sitting at a long communal table. About the only sign of the tropics is
the million-dollar terrace view of Havana's skyline and the Straits of
Florida.

At a pre-launch dress rehearsal this week, smartly dressed young waiters
set steaming bowls of solyanka, a meaty Russian soup, before about 20
invited guests.

The evening's menu also included pelmeni, dumplings filled with meat,
sour cream and dill; golubtsy, stuffed cabbage rolls slow-cooked in a
tomato sauce; pork Stroganoff (beef is often scarce in Cuba); and for
dessert, savory-sweet blintzes, called "blinchiki" in Russian.

Biniowsky said most of the ingredients can be found on the island, with
some exceptions such as flour for black bread, and caviar, for which
they'll rely on tins imported in the personal luggage of friends and
family. It will go for about $15 an ounce, with fancier and pricier
varieties available for special occasions.

In the air-conditioned kitchen, Irina Butorina stirred gobs of
mayonnaise with potatoes, eggs, ham and peas to create an olivier salad,
a popular dish in former Soviet states that, according to legend, was
invented by a Belgian- or French-Russian chef named Lucien Olivier.

Butorina, 56, fell in love with a Cuban student she met at university in
her native Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic, now Kyrgyzstan, and moved
here in 1984. She said the taste of her mother's recipes faded as she
adapted to Cuba.

"At first I used to cook a lot of Russian food here, but then a lot of
things disappeared from the market — cabbage, for example. ... so then I
make Cuban food," she said. "But these people here have started this
restaurant. It was their dream ... and our dream as well."

Experts say Butorina's story is typical of the Soviet diaspora here: Of
the estimated 3,000-4,000 islanders who were born in the Soviet Union or
descended from them, most are cases of Soviet women who married Cuban
university students and moved to the Caribbean nation.

Some were divorced or widowed but remain in Cuba decades later with
little or no tie to their homelands.

"I think for many it was a truly traumatic experience because there are
many of our women who have not traveled, who have not returned to visit
their countries after the Soviet Union disintegrated," said Dmitri
Prieto-Samsonov, an anthropologist who studies the Soviet diaspora in Cuba.

At Nazdarovie, one poster in particular stands out amid the current
crisis between Moscow and Kiev. Created under Nikita Khrushchev to
commemorate the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Russia and
Ukraine, it shows two runners representing the Soviet republics
simultaneously breaking the tape at a finish line. "To the
indestructible friendship and to new successes in sports," the slogan reads.

"That poster could seem like a joke, almost black humor," said
Prieto-Samsonov, who was born to a Russian mother and a Cuban father and
spent his first 13 years in Russia.

"I wish (the conflict) weren't happening between our countries," he
added. "We have great desires for peace."

Biniowsky said Nazdarovie seeks to transcend politics and build
community: People of Russian and Ukrainian descent and others working,
cooking and eating side by side, united by the shared memory of a
vanished nation-state rather than divided by current animosities.

"Not in the kind of naive utopian sense, but sometimes breaking bread
and getting drunk on vodka is key to peace."

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

Source: Nazdarovie: New retro-Soviet restaurant a nod to nostalgia for
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