Exploring restaurants and bars themed after famous bands
While Ukraine hadn’t yet produced a musical act to catch the attention of the world (I’m only talking modern ones here) and internationally worshipped bands visit the capital quite seldom, it doesn’t mean there are less music fans living in Kyiv than anywhere else. Good proof of this are clubs and bars named after iconic bands like the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Depeche Mode, The Doors and Pink Floyd.
Wednesday: A hard day’s break at The Cavern Club
Wednesdays always make me feel sort of like an active outsider. When I’m in the highest spirits for partying, all my friends are earth deep in their hollows to accumulate energy for the weekend. The only thing I can do is to hold up and try to find some cozy place for the evening. All I need is unobtrusive service, live music and a friendly atmosphere, and all that I can find at The Cavern Club, generally known as the Beatles cafe on Pushkinska. The first time I visited The Cavern, it still called itself a restaurant. The format change did it good and brought in the arty spirit. The design remained untouched – the same brick walls decorated with graffiti in a style of the “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” video, numerous posters and record plates of the Beatles, memorabilia, press-cuttings, drawings and the like. The Beatles theme is noticeable in the menu as well – all the dishes are named according to their songs. If you don’t want to eat anything you can amuse yourself reading the names (especially their English translations – hilarious). The busiest part of the cafe is the bar, decorated with funny items such as statuettes, a fat cat money-box, green apples and a toy rat hanging down from the glass holder. A laid back atmosphere rules the Cavern and spreads as far as the toilets. Their walls serve as some kind of visitors’ forum, where everyone can leave a message that sometimes may receive a reply.
As I approach the club its summer terrace is humming with voices, and all tables are busy. Inside The Beatles’ record is blasting, the TV sets are broadcasting a football match (Spartak vs Dynamo), the visitors, including several of my friends, are agitated to the point – I’m not the only one in the city craving for a party. I pick a pina colada (Hr 45) and here we go. In several minutes two guys, Mika and Serge, with guitars and a tambourine are getting up the stage. The repertoire is obvious – The Beatles. Of course The Beatles is not the only music to be heard in The Cavern, but one way or the other – it’s always rock’n’roll!
Thursday: Sheltering at Crazy Mama’s
While The Cavern is more a place for drinking and listening to music, the rock’n roll cafe Shalena Mama (Crazy Mama) is ready to delight your stomach. The Rolling Stones-themed place is an ideal pre- or after-party spot for rock fans. Along with its convenient location and the fact that it’s open around the clock, Shalena Mama has reasonable prices as well.
Walking through the narrow hall I chose one of the red tables and sat on a cozy red leather couch. The cafe was mostly empty but while I examined the menu visitors kept on streaming in. Soon both the hall and the open terrace were full. A small red-colored menu with the famous The Rolling Stones mouth-and-tongue symbol contained an assortment of American and Thai dishes naturally named after songs. After a long meditation, I chose a Thai dish called “Hard Black” – dumplings filled with salmon and fried in a soy sauce (Hr 53), the famous apple pie with caramel and ice cream labeled “Brown Sugar” (Hr 37) and simple green tea (Hr 25). The music didn’t impress me much. There were some pop video clips running on TV, and The Stones atmosphere was supported only by posters, funny pictures, and record plates. Although everything I ordered turned out to be very tasty, the pie was a mistake. It proved to be not just a slice but a whole pie the size of a plate. It would be all right for two people or just one good eater but for me it was too much, and I had to leave most of it on a plate with a sigh of regret.
Friday: Get your kicks at the Depeche Mode 101 Club
The Depeche Mode 101 Club appeared the weirdest place I have visited for a long time. I had a premonition of something strange already on my way to the place. Walking down Baggovutivska street, I noticed that the street numbers were all mixed up. As I began to give up hope of ever finding the club I noticed DM letters on the side of a building. Then I saw a small terrace near the entrance, and stairs down into the hall. Inside, small tables surrounded by chairs with cheap draping, but everything looked rather cozy in the half-light of candles and several lamps. The walls, adorned with DM lyrics, UK symbolic, and posters of the musicians looked rather stylish, again due to the dimmed lighting. As a Depeche Mode fan, I could appreciate their effort. I took my seat at a corner table near the entrance (probably according to some deep uncertain feeling of self-preservation) and went through the menu. A California roll for a common price of Hr 28, cheese cake with berries (Hr 25), and herbal tea for Hr 10 was my choice. Surprisingly, there weren’t any alcohol options except beer. As one of my friends explained to me later on, all alcohol at Depeche Mode is bought at the kiosk nearby. Thus I was sitting with a candle burning in the emptied tequila bottle used as a candleholder, absent-mindedly watching the muted DM video clips on TV, tapping in the rhythm of the DM songs.
Actually the night’s program promised a Depeche Mode party that night, so I expected a big audience. However all in all there were around ten ladies and three gentlemen, two of which were deejays. The ladies in casual jeans and T-Shirts with DM signs were drinking beer, laughing, taking pics, and dancing flabbily. The gentlemen, on the contrary, were setting the night on fire. The company seemed to know each other well, so it was a kind of party for a closed circle of friends. Apart from stale sushi and frozen cheese cake, the atmosphere was very simple, jolly and friendly. As I was also told, sometimes the club hosts young music bands, the proof of which was a lonely percussion set in the corner.
Saturday: Broken hopes at The Wall
I’m talking about The Wall cafe on Velyka Zhytomyrska, yet it turned out to have as little connection to Pink Floyd as the one on Bessarabska square. The only thing reminding of the wall breakers was the sign and a few photos of the band over the bar. The interior, music, and the menu doesn’t differ from any middle-range cafe in Kyiv. The same European (dry tiramisu for Hr 35) and Asian (sushi roll “The Wall” for Hr 60) offerings, the same TV set showing the concerts of Zuccero, same dark walls adorned by mirrors, and simply nothing to bring in the peculiar spirit of the famous name.
Sunday: Ending with The Doors
I imagined a visit to The Doors cafe could make a great finish to a fabulous weekend. No way. Apart from the sign with two “O’s” in the form of tablets, there was nothing from the legendary band at The Doors cafe, not a single photo even. Still there is something psychedelic in the interior, a mix of originality and cheapness. Before getting inside the hall you have to walk through an old Wild West saloon door. On the wall in front hangs a wooden board with door numbers and old keys. Under the ceiling one sees a huge tree branch studded with keys and red stripes. The menu stuns with weird offers. All of the dishes seemed to have the same ingredients mixed in wild proportions. The real shock was to see my pancakes (Hr 30), that turned out absolutely tasteless, arrive with two plastic packs of jam lying in the middle of the plate. The tea (Hr 10) and sweets (Hr 11) soothed my disappointment a bit.
The Cavern (9A Pushkinska, 536-1531);
Crazy Mama (4A Tereshchenkivska, 234-1751);
The Depeche Mode (101 Club27 Baggovutivska, 489-7780);
The Wall (25/2 Velyka Zhytomyrska, 272-2494);
The Doors (13 Reitarska, 279-5168).
