"I divide the guests into two types: Bukovsky and Hemingway"

Why is the umbrella is vodka, and Faulkner is a mint Julep: what and how the bartenders read

Gorky continues the cycle about the practices of reading different social and professional groups: we have already published monologues of the Ural workers , former prisoners , authors of the Translit Almanac and Pankov . This time, at the request of Gorky, Ekaterina Kolpinets talked with the bartenders of Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and Moscow about literary conversations at the bar, drinks resembling their favorite authors, and the one of the writers would like to drink.

Ilya Bunin, Bunin Bar Barthenter, Yekaterinburg

I was born and raised in Omsk, studied at the Altai Academy of Culture on the director. In the specialty - the director of mass theatrical performances. He became a bartender, because there was no money, like any student, but loved to attach to the neck.

More bar helped me in the theater than the theater - in the bar. Because the director is an observer, a collector of characters. Therefore, the best theater is a bar. Where else will you find the whole palette of types, from Zabuldyg to professors? According to my observations, people in the bar rarely play out classic role models of alcoholics - Hemingway or Fitzgerald. We still read little: rarely in a bar you meet a person with whom you can talk about literature. And if this appears, then he begins to resemble a beloved literary character only after a fourth or fifth drink.

When I worked in Tyumen, an interesting type went into the bar, sat behind the bar. I think: it rings - it doesn’t rush, I begin to interfere with Dry Martini, a cocktail of gin and dry vermouth. I put a cocktail in front of him. He asks: "What is it?" I say: “Come on, you know. I see that after I poured Gene, you looked at Vermouth, and they stand in different parts of the bar. ” We talked - it turned out that he loves Hemingway very much, teaches the culture of speech at Tyumen State University. Actually, he was the one who advised me to read Ham.

Hemingway I like the fact that he is always different. When you read, you feel - here he is shitty, then he was jealous, then he suffered from a hangover, here he had fun. Favorite book is “A holiday that is always with you”, not yet Ham. There is a spirit of post -war Paris in it, where he meets the guys who will later become legends. Sometimes you think: "How bad everything is, why rejoice?" You open the "holiday" - and it becomes easier to live. Hemingway is associated with Dark'n'Stormy (rum, ginger ale, lime juice): it seems to be a simple cocktail, but at the same time multi -layer, revealing gradually, not immediately.

I can’t say that my tastes are clearly defined. Like alcohol, literature is always a story about mood, it should coincide with what you feel right now. When I strained in my life, I prefer to read science fiction in order to get away from this world. Now, when I went headlong into the creation of my bar, I read the "country of crimson clouds" of the Strugatsky. When life flows more measuredly, I read classics, old plays - I try not to forget the theater. If a playful mood , I read absurdity like Ionesko. In a lyrical mood, I re -read Moliere.

Once I worked at Tapa de Comida-a bar that played the role of a place of power. There he met the bartender Igor Chistobaev. Talking behind the stack of Grazovka, we found out that we both love the lyrics and drink. So I began to write poetry about cocktails. Although he composed in the second grade: I found a volume of Baratynsky in my mother in the home library, read and began to come up with in the image and likeness. Our first poems about cocktails were born on the basis of undisguised alcoholism. Then we began to read their guests, which surprised them a lot. Soon the idea came to release a book about 77 cocktails and suggest publishing it to some kind of alcoholic brand. Here are two poems.

"Singapore sling"

In bananovo-lemon Singapore,
Sitting a young officer sits at the persistent,
He draws verbal paintings,
What would even envy Pulitzer.
At a bartender for a lady, a dandelion asks
The most tender drink on Earth.
And the maiden is wandering, outside the window autumn
A parade-alle leads through the streets.
And it just happened that this drink is
I liked the carriers of the manner.
Born then, now sinking a poet.
I ask you - the Singapore Officer.

"Martines"

Barthens are not averse to gossiping a little.
The year is not important, and what brand mixed ...
And we, walking with traditions,
Today we are talking about Martinese.
Once lived one professor-Thomas.
He interfered with drinks, wrote books,
Behind the persistent respected taste and performance
And the mixology was a little trained ...
He came to him, having performed the tour by weights,
One goldmine, says:
Martinez I lived and was born in Martinez ...
And I would have home, but before - to roll.
And in general, Mr. Thomas, sophisticated,
Mixed the drink, like Zlata shine,
And today, even in a fire, having drunk,
My evening is completing Martinese.

I would not want to drink any of my favorite writers, because by drunk I would have recognized their plans for the future. As a drinking companion, a Tuluz-Lotrek is interesting-a very peculiar character. I would have drunk with him.

Daria Solovyova, Bartender, cafe "Youth", Moscow

Before becoming a bartender, I was engaged in volleyball for half my life, played for CSKA, was completely immersed in life, where training is six hours every day, all summer fees. When CSKA was bought out and the team fled, it shook me well: she worked in the visa center of the Czech Republic, the pilgrimage service of the Radonezh Center, Bayer in Italy, a banquet manager. For a long time, a bar for me was a place where music rattles, drunk around, and behind a bar, there are girls with bare breasts and a navel, pouring a gin-tonic.

When four years ago I first went to Delicatessen, the first reaction was: "What, can you?" I was struck by the atmosphere, the guys talked with the guests, asking them after each cocktail about the sensations. I realized that I want to work the same way. The coolest in this profession is that you immediately see the result of your work. You do not need to wait a month or a year.

I like the bartender Lloyd in the “radiance” of Kubrick: it is invisible and at the same time irreplaceable. The bartenders in the books of Remarque always remember that you drank yesterday, even if you yourself do not remember anything. Once a guy approached the rack, asked a cocktail from the book of Hemingway, whose names he did not remember, but he knew the composition: rum, coconut liquor and angos, mixed to a rusty color. We stood and mixed together, commenting: “Enough rusty? No? More!" The cocktail turned out to be tasteless, but I was still glad because such guests rarely come in.

We have a cocktail “Nicolas climbed into a bottle” in our menu - it is named after the literary critic Nikolai Alexandrov, a regular bar. He always sits in the same place with a standard set: coffee, Jameson, gas water and steak. Since it always sits at the counter, it sees all cooking processes. Once we made a new cocktail and could not come up with a name for him, and Nikolai says: “Yes, name me already in honor of me.” And recently he asked us the question: "Do you know who Khodasevich is?" We are: "No." It seemed to me that he almost burst into tears from our answer. The next day he brought everyone according to the book of his poems.

When choosing books, I am guided by the advice of friends and what we recommend that our permanent guest Alexandrov. I mainly read professional bartender literature, Jerry Thomas's books - what every bartender should know. It is important that the book is easy to read, reading for me is a vacation. Two ideal books of my childhood - “without a family” Hector is not enough and the “American tragedy” of Theodore Dreiser. I like stories about strong characters, the internal struggle that takes place in every person. Now I read the "island" of Oldos Haxley, I got this book during the game of Secret Santa. The plot about the life of a city man on the island, when you need to learn to feel and trust, is also close to me.

Who would you drink with? Of the writers, probably with Maxim Gorky. It can hardly be called my favorite author, but I really like the poem about the young man Marco. For him, I would make Martinese or Lucien Prideen (Gene, orange liquor, dry vermouth and campair). For Vonnegut, Hanky Panky would mix-translated as “Focus-Pocus”, that was the name of one of his books. I would also drink with Miyazaki, I was prepared by Aperol Sour - as light and fantasy as his cartoons.

Vladimir Zhuravlev, Bartender, head of Clubaratory, art director of Bartender Brothers, Moscow

For a long time I was fond of music. When he lived in Saratov, he even had his own rock band, toured in different cities. In the 1990s, he went to Moscow after his friend Marat Saddarov (now the chief bartenter Noor). In the late 1990s, Marat got a bartender in a closed financial and brothera corporation, where there was an internal bar with such an choice of alcohol that any institution of Russia would envy those years. After the crisis of 1998, the office closed, Marat and I found ourselves in the legendary “City Cafe 317” opposite the White House. Now, in addition to the main work, I help in organizing a professional barproof awards.

Since I have been engaged in the history of bar culture for a long time, I do not associate writers with abstract drinks, they are clearly defined for me. The same Hemingway - the main promoter in the cocktail world, about whose relationships many books are written with drinking - for me it is associated only with Rom and Gin. Just like a remark is only Calvados, and Faulkner is a mint Julep. When you know that when and where the writer drank, it is difficult to associate him with something else. Hemingway did a lot for bar culture. For example, the La Bodeguita del Medio institution, opened in 1942 in Havana, became popular thanks to Ham, who later wrote his famous: “My Daikiri in Florete, and my Mojito in Bodegid.” The pilgrimage of people who want to drink like Ham does not stop in the Hemingeevsky places. The owner of Floriditis Konstantino Ribalaiga prepared a cocktail specifically for him, where instead of sugar he added Maraschino liquor because the writer had diabetes.

The main popularizer of cocktails was and remains cinema. The general hobby of vodka in cocktails began with the adaptations of Jan Fleming: in the novel “Casino Royal” (1953), the Vesper cocktail with Gin and vodka appears. Mojito is connected with Hemingway, but his boom happened after the film “Direct, but not now” (2002), where Bond in Cuba raises a glass and says: “Mojito”. The same is with the popularity of the Polynesian divers from the film "Dzhango Liberated" (2012). In fact, Tarantino was borrowed by this cocktail from the “newspaper Noir” “Blue Garden” (1953), the creators of which, in turn, found it in the menu of Don Bichkomber-legends of cocktail tica culture from the Dry Law.

Today in all major cities of the world-from Lisbon to Singapore-a bar shows are held. I have friends in San Francisco, members of the ART Deco Society Society, who regularly arrange costumed balls, dress up in the heroes of the Great Gatsby, prepare cocktails of that era or remove entire hotels where they reconstruct events from the book.

There are many types of bars in the USA. For example, the bars where Bukovsky walks in his books and the hero of Mickey Rurk in the film “Drunk”, on professional slang, are called Dive Bar - a local bar, where local Zabuldygi dies (English - dive) to skip a glass of whiskey or beer. In the dive bars are not cooked cocktails. In the film “Drunk”, a girl in love with Hanka enters the bar and asks for vodka with lemon - she is raised to laugh. Or in the “good heart”, where the hero asks for a “bloody Mary” in such a bar, the bartender squeezes the ketchup in vodka and says: “Sorry, the celery has not been brought today.”

In Russia, people still come to the institutions and the first thing they say: I don’t drink a mesh, I have a headache from him. They drink and eat at the same time. There was no culture of aperitifs, diets, it was not customary to go to the bar - to drink and leave. The only bar of the Soviet era, described in literature and in the cinema, is the “cocktail-Hall” on Tverskaya. Aksenov has in the “Moscow Saga”, in the film “Squire of Champagne” by Govorukhin and later in “Shtilyaga”. When it was closed, our cocktail culture has gone into oblivion. In the 1970s, there were strong bar schools in the USSR, but they existed under the "Intourist".

My library has several books with recipes for literary cocktails or cocktails of great American writers. Almost all of them are mixed and tasted more than once. Now I already perceive the composition of the cocktail by ear - I do not need to drink it to evaluate it. If I had a choice, I would drink in the company of Francis Scott Fitzgerald his favorite Jin Ricky cocktail.

Artem Prostyuk, Terminal bar, St. Petersburg

In the first specialty, I am a dental technician - went to the medical, because my brother studied there. He quit his studies, went to study at the photographer. He began to photograph a lot and communicate with people - it may have already helped me when I became a bartender. Having moved to St. Petersburg, he first worked in a cafe on Fontanka. Later, a friend invited to Terminal, where I still work. I like to watch the public, standing behind the bar, but the eye is already blurry: all stories seem ordinary.

They often come to us in the morning. Moreover, a variety of people - from artists to clerks, many barters who have worked out the night shift. I myself often go to visit my friends by working out the night. Recently, after the next shift, my friends and I came up with the idea of creating a literary club in the bar, where we could discuss what we read, or rather - listened. Almost every of us during the night shift listen to audiobooks. The list for discussion was this: “All the Light invisible to us” Anthony Dorra, “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt, “Little Works” by O. Henry, “Book of Dreams” of Borges, “Caricature. Inappropriate story ”Anton Krotkov. Despite the initial enthusiasm, the idea quickly stalled: it was not so simple to get together and discuss books, and not after a change in a relaxed atmosphere. In St. Petersburg, literature is so intertwined with life-Dostoevsky and Brodsky look out from behind each corner-that there is no need to talk about it somewhere else, especially in the bar. According to my observations, in bars they like to talk about politics, about how everything is bad with us. But this is not an analysis, but melancholy thoughts about life.

My literary tastes strongly influenced the fascination with photography and study in the "Photode Department". Now my favorite books are those that I read by study: “Photojournalism from the inside” Howard Chapnik, “Photography Like ...” Alexander Lapin and “On the photograph” Susan Umbrella. From fiction, only Dovlatov and Hunter Thompson love.

Oddly enough, both Umbrella and Dovlatov are associated with vodka with me. But these are two different vodka, now I’ll explain ... In St. Petersburg there is a bar “Mail”, where every Tuesday arrange a Russian table: pour vodka 100 rubles and put a free snack. This vodka and the people who come to drink it for me is a pure pre -post, unreasonable drunkenness in the intellectual circle. Umbrella is another vodka. In winter, my parents from Perm came to me, I showed them the city. Along the way, we went to all establishments, drank vodka along a pile and went on. When I read the umbrella, I feel that I showed my mother Isaac's cathedral, told her a story, we examined all this beauty, and then came out of there and drank a stack of vodka from the frost. Pure pleasure.

Kirill Strekalin, bartender Un Joli Coco, Moscow

I work in a Speakeasy bar-translated “Speak quietly”. They appeared in the United States during the dry law - such bars are not advertised anywhere, but learn about them from friends and acquaintances. I know many of my guests by name. I am conditionally divided by visitors into two types: typical Bukovsky and typical Hemingway. Bukovsky drinks in series, a drink behind a drink, in the breaks he definitely needs to talk. And Hemingway gets drunk right away.

A good bartender can find a common language with anyone. If I see that a person is not in the mood, then first I keep the distance. When he begins to show that he lacks attention (this is happening sooner or later), I begin to select words and ask the first questions. Barters from literature or cinema are usually invented. No matter how much the author drank, a person standing on the other side of the bar, he comes out one -sided. I read enough professional literature, Jerry Thomas and Dale Degroff, so as not to believe in cardboard characters. Therefore, I have no favorite bartenders from books and films.

For me, literature and alcohol exist separately. I keep all my art books at home, at work - only special literature on the history of bar culture and cocktails. I love long fabulous novels, where strange and incomprehensible things happen to the heroes. Reading the "House in which ..." Mariam Petrosyan, you fall into a state of timelessness: it is written in different time intervals, you do not immediately understand what is happening. I like the “lords of the hills” by Richard Adams - the fairy tale that his father read before sleeping his daughters, the narrative is on behalf of the rabbit. Jonathan Strande and Mr. Norrell Suzanne Clark about two wizards reviving magic in England. I do not like modern fantasy like “hungry games” - he lacks the depth; It seems that this is a repetition of everything that I have already seen. The last book I read - Tender Bar Jay Mororger, was translated into Russian as a “delicate bar”. Книга о мальчике, выросшем в баре маленького городка среди алкоголя и завсегдатаев. Сам бар называется «Диккенс». То, как он описан в романе, близко к моему пониманию идеального бара. Бар — это убежище, где тебя примут и нальют, в каком бы состоянии ты ни был. Я потом нашел его в интернете — оказалось, этот бар реально существовал! Жаль, уже закрылся. С бартендером «Диккенса» Стивом я бы выпил тот самый коктейль «Манхассет» в городке Манхассет, штат Нью-Йорк.