The Gorchitsa Cafe, the product of Frenchman Joel Frantz, hits the spot with an elegant mix of location, decor and pleasantly simple food - with no pretentions.
that the most satisfying restaurants in Kyiv tend to be other than the deluxe ones.
Before I get to Gorchitsa, here’s my obnoxious reason why: I’m from New York City. When you’ve spent a lifetime eating out in one of the world’s great restaurant towns, you know what you should be paying for. The top Kyiv restaurants often charge the same – or almost the same – prices for dishes that good restaurants in New York do, simply because they can: Kyiv’s elite can afford to pay whatever they’re charged. The trouble is that while these restaurants are often good, they’re not New York good, and they’re definitely not New York-prices good.
That’s not a slur, but a statement of fact. Kyiv doesn’t have two hundred years’ worth of bourgeois restaurant culture chalked up, nor the sort of huge and voracious yuppie middle class that grounds the restaurant cultures of cities in the West. This city is still learning many things, which is one of the reasons it’s so exciting to be here. Nor is the Ukrainian capital alone. The best restaurant in most cities that aren’t named “London,” “Lyons,” “Paris,” and “San Francisco” wouldn’t even crack New York’s top 50.
So that’s why I prefer Kyiv’s more casual establishments. They don’t tax your patience by serving you good-but-not-quite-worth-it $40 dishes in a city in which the subway costs 20 cents. They chill out that way.
Hence Gorchitsa Cafe, on Shovkovichna, up there on the hill in gorgeous Lypky, my own neighborhood. It’s tucked away down a flight of steps, in the basement of one of those ponderous battleship-gray Stalinist apartment buildings that Lypky is full of when it’s not full of lovely pre-revolutionary architecture. The location is pleasing: it’s like a giant, hoary boulder is looming protectively over the warm little rabbit-hole that the cafe is. You walk into the small place – no more than a dozen tables spread our below you – and feel the warm mustard tones (gorchitsa means “mustard”), and smell a civilized tang of cigarette smoke compounded with the essence of roast meat and vinegar.
And here the whole healthy non-deluxe vibe comes into play. There’s no extra-culinary pretension. No belly dancers with their breasts, no Rada deputies toking on hookahs, no DJ, no hostess serving tycoons Monte Cristos in diamond-encrusted humidified cigar-transporters, no dwarves in livery, and no dishes priced like you’re in London or New York. Instead, there’s just a restrained good taste. It’s what I’m used to when it comes to restaurants, and it might be what you’re used to, too.
What to order? Mostly you’re looking at unpretentious bistro or Gallic peasant food here. Try the potato or broccoli soups, creamy purees worked through with a sweet dollop of oil. Or the marinated salmon, a long wedge of which is served on a wide plate under a dill-sprinkled cream sauce. It’s a wonderful filling dish, accompanied by a sizable romaine salad. Also check out the beef carpaccio with parmesan flakes, and the osso buco with polenta. If you’ve been wondering where to find osso buco in this country, here it is.
I love that they serve pike quenelles, that old-line classic that I haven’t eaten since I was taken to that classic midtown Manhattan warhorse La Caravelle as a youngster. Here you can eat quenelles among normal Ukrainians, not stick-thin European ladies who lunch. And I love that Paul Jaboulet Cotes du Rhone is served by the (big balloon) glass, a nice little vinous message from home.
You should be especially aware of the breakfast menu: croissants, yogurt, omelets, a croque monsieur, pancakes with maple syrup. But really it’s the total atmosphere of this place that’s made me so glad it has opened in my neighborhood. I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time here this winter: eating breakfast on cold mornings, letting the brick arches and the ochre walls and the French country furnishings take the chill off my soul; spending February nights huddled at the bar, drinking Jim Beam or cognac while the snow sifts across the high windows, separated from the warmth inside by a pane of glass and a million psychic miles.
And if you come here for lunch, you’ll find a restful spot filled with a murmuring crowd, among whom will be politicos from the nearby government buildings, hunched over tables while they sip cappuccinos. In other words, this is a good, quiet neighborhood place of the quiet Western variety in a city that doesn’t have many of them. Enough said. Let’s hope Frantz prospers and opens more such places.
Gorchitsa Cafe (10 Shovkovichna, 253-3008.)
Open daily from 8 a.m. till 11 p.m.
English menu: Yes.
English-speaking staff: Yes.
Restaurant Notes
Banners have been flying across town for weeks already promoting the Extreme Tacos menu at T.G.I. Friday’s (5A Bessarabska Square) – six new Mexican dishes to tantalize the taste buds.
Here’s what they have: chicken soft taco with blue cheese dressing made from shredded buffalo wings (Hr 39); BBQ taco burger served with tangy BBQ sauce, bacon, grilled onions and Colby cheese (Hr 47); the blue cheese taco burger, which comes with Cajun-spiced hamburger and topped with lettuce, tomatoes, grilled onions and a blue cheese dressing (Hr 44); the beef or pork taco, which boasts spicy BBQ sauce, lettuce, grilled onions, Monterrey Jack cheese and sour cream (Hr 53); and, for dessert, fried ice cream topped with cinnamon, caramel, pecans and whipped cream (Hr 29). All dishes except the dessert, of course, come with hot, crisp French fries and a bottle of Heineken beer plus a special gift. Come in and chow down while the getting’s good.
