Restaurateur
Saveliy Libkin

Tomorrow, in a friendly way, she should pour 50 grams and lay the table… A little herring with onion, potatoes and a few pieces of smoked brisket from Privoz on the polished plates and obligatory olives. It will be enough to have a bite after a toast. And we should buy presents, iron the trousers and put on the jackets and go to say happy birthday again.

It is better to prepare a toast beforehand and in various languages… In Armenian and Greek, in Jewish and Russian, in Bulgarian and even in Ukrainian… Because the lady is multilingual… And her age in terms of  human one is trifling at all… She is almost a girl. And of course all wishes must come true. Because the wishes are sincere and vodka is hard.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ODESSA.

You can read the beginning last Saturday:

Part 1

In 2003 city authorities have «allowed» to the townsmen to spend money on renewal of paving slab and respectively to use new surfacing for summer café. Plastic furniture has been sold at the seven km market like pastries with peas. One had to hire persons with higher education as waiters. At that time Elena Ivanovna has managed entrusted to her restaurant after her previous work at district committee with newspaper in her hands. A cup of coffee and a newspaper in general were as scepter and globe for her. She didn’t part with them even in the lavatory. Alena, who was a waitress at that time, after she has graduated language and literature department and language and literature department called her delicate enough old bitch. Elena Ivanovna has hold out two weeks. Then Alena made friends with one of the summer guests and in one month she gone to Denmrk with him to have a trial marriage trip. She is still there. Of course she has changed that man who helped her to come and see foreign country to another boyfriends but she still recollects her home only by Internet. Many girls have followed her successful example. To be more precise everyone has tried to do it and in summer the service became front-oriented. Even if the body didn’t allow much to flirt then a few bottles of wine, at that time it was imported from Georgia have done their part. To cut it short, just Alena has left the country but the staff liked the foreigners for a long time. 65 years old Frenchman Andre who became Andrusha at the instigation of his local brides have come to the restaurant every day  and have treated them every day and told them about how nice it is there at his home land. How he mixes beer with blackcurrant liqueur and how he eats year-round strawberry after champagne there. How near his native Alsace is to other different foreign names. But it was end in talk and in autumn Andre gone home alone. His brides with waitress have recollected for a long time his stories about casino in Baden-Baden and his cheap tip. From that time one of the brides liked corner table and she spent not one Saturday night sitting there with a cup of tea and foreign newspapers. But only local drunken man or guest workers from Moldova who introduced themselves as businessmen from Kishinev have show their interest. Once one of such businessmen have tried to pay for his bill with the help of discount card of the restaurant having assured the administrator Masha that the director of the restaurant gave him this card. In spite of that Masha also came from Transdniestria she has distinguished one card from another easily enough and if the guest didn’t has a discount then she often used her own card with hope for big tip. Masha was puzzled out only because of a guest’s avarice. Vladimir Naumovich bragged at another shift that Masha calculates his bills with discount… At that he bragged to his lady-love who did not fail to tell about it to the then director when they arranged small stand-up party.

Masha wasn’t fired but she was warned. With time discounts gained epidemic nature. The staff has been growing fat, the profitability has been falling. On the other hand at that time CO* didn’t look fixedly on the restaurants and they were busy with fundamental transactions-issues-projects. It was easy enough to operate even taking into account waiters’ forgetfulness. And that lady who has shared information soon became the spouse of administrator from another restaurant and stopped to visit the restaurant. Gradually Deribasovskaya Street has been selling to “friends”. Strangers have leased the premises and earned a little bit money. Everyone, including us who have taken a great interest in the words hospitality, empathy and culture were satisfied.

*control authorities

I will post the continuation next Saturday

• Part 3

When I try to remember how everything has began appears desire to come again into small café with a few tired prostitutes where a few portions of coffee and sandwiches with something not much resembling food have been sold during one day. Also sometimes gloomy characters in light and sometimes even in white socks have sat there. Many years have passed and today walking by the façade sometimes through the windows of veranda I recognize the silhouettes of an old juice bar in the famous shop.

Just now a man of decent appearance whose name is Roman Yakovlevich left the restaurant. His spouse also visits this restaurant sometimes and she sits at veranda for a long time, examining children near local cow. He usually orders Caesar salad and a few shot glasses of vodka but only if he comes alone. If he comes with his spouse then a good food and a bottle of Chilean wine appear on the table. His spouse comes to the restaurant with her friends more often and then they also drink vodka with salmon tartar or with Caesar salad again. He orders steaks only if he comes with Vladimir Naumovich. He is also regular guest of the restaurant who sometimes talks to the waitress as if he waits for their approval and understanding for very modest tip. But he leaves the tip only if he comes with Roman Yakovlevich. If he comes alone he doesn’t do it. But then the spouse of Roman Yakovlevich leaves a huge tip but only when she comes alone and she leave it only to the most attractive waiter Grisha. Other waiters don’t come up to her. Also sometimes they come to the restaurant all together and then the size of tip doesn’t depend on the waiter’s look.

And also young enough businessmen whose name is Evgeniy settled down in the restaurant. On his table you can always see 17-inches laptop and several cell phones, a modem- it is obligatory, and false purse Monblan. He has watch Breguet but it is also false, he likes to examine the next princess when she go to lavatory. He orders food seldom but he likes very much to treat the spouse of his friend who often is in business trips by Italian Merlot. And the size of tip is doubled when his friend’s spouse looks at him with kinder gaze because of the next bottle of Merlot.

At the table near the entrance settled down the grandson of local businessman PV. I write abbreviation because this PV is very notorious person. It is he who doesn’t economize on food and tip. And nobody care about that this tip has rather illegal origin. The grandson of PV sometimes hit on the spouse of Roman Yakovlevich but only if he is very drunk. And PV often invites to his table the second wife of Vladimir Naumovich and he doesn’t hide and confused much. And why he must do it because she comes to the restaurant not only with him. And attractive Grisha became saucy after he was invited «to drink a cup of coffee» by to girls whose fathers in Kiev rule the world. You see, he imagined that he is the main lady-killer in spite of that the tip from Roman Yakovlevich’s spouse he spends solely to the small shows of affection to the daughter of his boss in the restaurant, who dinned that Grisha must be the administrator into her father’s ears.  But this is only beginning of 2002 year….

To be continued on Saturdays after 10:00 p. m

//

At Privoz, after the reconstruction because of the fire, finally was opened the second part of the market. Now a fish are sold from the side of Preobrajenskaya Street (former Soviet Army Street) again. When it occurred to local members of administrative staff and businessmen that it isn’t kosher to sell a fish at the 40-degree heat…

It is enough just to set one or two ice generator and all the fish, even if it isn’t always fresh, but will lie in the ice shaving.

Then I visited birthday party of my friend at Lobster and tried not to get drunk on the eve of visit of Karl Frierson to jazz-café Utochkin.

A portion of espresso and reading of menu with French-Odessan names of the dishes at another technical restaurant created offhand in the building of regional administration didn’t stay in my memory. The spying securities and waiters got up from the couches forcedly and dressed the hospitable grin fast but it didn’t solve the issue.

Then was the meeting with residents of Kiev at the café in City Garden.

These girls-ladies have stayed in my memory thanks to their multiple-vector opinions and criticism of Valera Polyakov, something like he doesn’t know what is Florentine-Style Steak, and in general… One of them visits Italy one time in two months and she knows well about lemongrasses and spring rolls and also about something forgettable but which sounds alike. I heard many things about ink of cuttlefish and about acquaintance with Odessan architect Denis. The girls are on business in Odessa, with social project…they familiarize us with it, so to say, accustom us with it. But maybe I perceived these two nice and well-educated girls from the capital somewhat interestedly….?

Also a delicious but sickly sweet cherry liqueur at Klara Bara has stayed in my memory.

The concert began with another jazz dolt, who sand to slip all the guests fast but when Frierson began to sing about New York, everyone returned to life and started to dance. Then we came to Opera café. A banquet-pension plaza turned into modern karaoke-sushi-café for hesitant Arcadian ladies and local patrons-sponsors. Though visitants from Moscow also can count on success here and rather inexpensively.

At 01 p.m. we returned to dacha (not restaurant).

How much the differences of the doors went out of date in their and our contries are noticable?

It is significant that the colour scores are alike…