The other day, David Rief, son of the late Susan Sontag, stopped by. Susan Sontag was one of the greatest writers in America. She received many awards in many countries for working tirelessly for the rights of the oppressed. She wrote many books and had a great influence on her time. David told me that he is working on opening Susan Sontag’s foundation. The aim of the foundation is to help writers, playwrights, and particularly poets. David asked me if they could hold the first meeting of the board of the foundation at Russian Samovar. Susan Sontag was a loyal friend for many years, I loved her and she in her turn treated me well and Russian Samovar was her favorite restaurant in the city. I said to David, “Yes of course” that I would do anything to keep Susan Sontag’s memory alive.

The day before yesterday Nick Ilyin, the head of development of the Guggenheim Museum came to the restaurant and brought 8 guests, among them was the director of the Guggenheim Museum, Thomas Kranz. The other guests included the son of the pianist Vladimir Felzman. The others were Mark Slobadianik, and Sergey Gordeyev. I had already gone home but when Nick, who is a good friend, called my house, I took a cab and soon joined them in the restaurant. We talked and we toasted and we joked and drank flavored vodkas. Some concert pianist from the group played the piano and we sang a lot of different Russian songs, mostly all familiar tunes from World War II and the early 50’s.

On Saturday Nick Ilyin is bringing a big party of thirty to the VIP room of the restaurant on the second floor. Yesterday the great Russian poet representing the Leningrad tradition, Alexander Kushner read his recent works at the Russian Samovar. A lot of poetry lovers came to the restaurant to hear him read and leaned against the big table on the second floor to listen to the wonderful poetry of Alexander Kushner. After the reading there was a reception and ten people, closest to the poet were conducted to the first floor and served Russian traditional dinner. Of course, it included herring, Vinegret, eggplant caviar, sauerkraut, half sour pickles, Salo, and Pelmeni. I joined them at the table and we talked about poetry, how he in particular writes his poetry. He explained that it always comes from a poetic idea that keeps growing and growing in his mind and when it is ripe he sits down and writes the poem. There were many toasts and many flavored vodkas were tasted. Our famous musicians Sergey Pobedinsky and Valerie Zhmud came to our table and played Joseph Brodsky’s favorite song, “The Thin Ashberry”. The evening was yes another great success

Yalta International Movie Festival

Recently I was invited to Yalta for the International Movie Festival that took place there and lasted 8 days. There were many countries showing their films at the festival and a lot of representatives and actors from these countries came to Yalta. I called it the Yalta conference. We all stayed at the beautiful hotel where all the members of the original Yalta conference also stayed. After the renovation the hotel really looked impressive. The opening and closing ceremonies were held at the palace which Alexander the third built on the top of the hill from which the whole town and the sea presents a wonderful picture. The place looked like a theater scene.
There were rather many films shown at the festival but for me the most impressive was the movie “Russian Gambling” directed by Pavel Chukhrai, the son of a famous Russian cinematographer. The film is based on a play by Gogol called the gamblers. The organizers of the festival promised to bring the movie to New York for the New York Film festival. The festival will take place at the Tribeca Theater on October 12th. A lot of prominent Russian actors, all of them young representatives of contemporary Russian film makers, will attend the event. It promises to be a very exciting week for the city of New York.

Francine Du Plessy - Gray

Francine Du Plessy- Gray is a dear old friend, one of those who has been a patron of the restaurant since its inception in 1986. She is a timely remarkable woman. Her mother, Tatiana Yakovleva, was an incredible beauty. Niece of the famous Russian artist and adventurer, the young Tatiana had just escaped communist Russia and was living in Paris when she met the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky who fell madly in love with her. After Mayakovsky returned to Russia, failing to take Tatiana with him, he sent her passionate letters but the young beauty absolutely refused to love him. Mayakovsky desperately tried to get to France but the Soviet authorities would not give him a visa. Vladimir Mayakovsky realized that he might not return and might not see his love again. Disillusioned and dejected the poet committed suicide. Soon after Tatiana married a French aristocrat, Du Plessy and from this union their daughter Francine was born. Her Father Du Plessle was a pilot who was shot by the Germans at the very beginning of World War II. Soon Afterwards Tatiana Yakovleva married an émigré artist Alex Lieberman with whom they brought young Francine to New York, where she grew up. At home she was called Frosia. Francine grew up in New York, married a very talented painter, Clieve Gray and lived with him all her life until his death a year ago. In the meantime Alex became the artistic director of one of the greatest publishing empire, Conde Nast. The owner of the publishing house was Sy Newhouse who became a devoted friend of the family. Francine wrote recently a wonderful book “Them” where she described her mother and stepfather, their relationship, and their life in New York society. She received the national book award for this book. Both Tatiana and Alex died several years ago.
Yesterday Francine brought to the restaurant a few friends. I joined them for a drink and they told me how they enjoyed the food and the ambience of the restaurant. Later when they were leaving I introduced them to our chef Patrick and they conversed in French for a few minutes. It turned out a good evening.

Bel Kaufman

The other day Bel Kaufman came to the restaurant to celebrate her 96th birthday. I first met her in 1966 when she was visiting the Soviet Union and a mutual friend of ours who worked at the Union of the Soviet writers brought her to my lecture on Hemingway at the Institute of Foreign languages. Bel Kaufman had just published a book that immediately became a great success in America. Soon it was made into a movie which made her visibility even greater. Apart from the feet that she is an established author she is also the granddaughter of Sholom Aleichem who is considered a great author in the yidish language. Her husband Sydney is also 96 and they have been coming to the Samovar since 1986, the year the restaurant opened. Bel still takes dancing classes and invites everyone to come and celebrate her 100th birthday. An evening with her is always “happiness”. She speaks Russian flawlessly and likes to impress and fascinate everyone with the stories she tells. Later on, on the same night a group of beautiful international singers came and they performed a multitude of Italian, French and German arias. They were amazed at the skill that Alexander Izbitser, our regular musician displayed, not only knowing the music for every song or aria they sang but also at the ease that he remembered all of them. The guests of the restaurant went berserk. The singers said it was an incredible evening and hugged and kissed Alexander for his incredible accomplishments.

Singer friends

Last week was another interesting week at the Russian Samovar. A former student of Alexander Izbitser, Christina, came by with some of her singer friends. Some of her friends were from Italy while others were locals from the states. They sang classical songs by Verdi, Shuman, Schubert and other composers of 19th Century. They are regulars at the Russian Samovar and every time they come they make it an exciting night. If you are lucky you might catch them here too.

Business After-hours

Last Wednesday night via3pr and Bensonhurst Business Club held an event called the Business After-hours at the Russian Samovar Restaurant in Midtown. People from all kinds of business backgrounds attended: store owners, doctors, dentists, filmmakers, salon owners, along with representatives from Netcost Market, Lucello Jewelry Company, Imperia Vodka and Verizon. It turned out to be a fabulous little soiree at Russian Samovar’s elegant and enchanting V.I.P lounge, with guests mingling, networking, and indulging in drinks.

The point of the Business After-hours event was to help people network, and the evening’s host, Irina Shmeleva made networking fun and painless by inventing games that helped the guests relax and meet each other. In case that it didn’t work, she spent the rest of the evening introducing everyone to everyone else. There was a short speech given by Alec Teyel, HSBC bank’s Small Business Relationship Manager, who co-organized the event. Alex then introduced the guest speaker Robert Levin, the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of New York Enterprise Report Magazine, who is the publisher and the editor-in-chief of a hugely popular magazine “The New York Enterprise Report”. Robert shared some great tips on how to make small businesses grow, emphasizing how crucial networking is in the process of building and maintaining a business. All in all, it was a great night and many guests departed with a smile. We are all looking forward to the next one.

Vodka Tasting Evening

Yesterday was a wonderful July evening in Manhattan. One of the best restaurants in the city, "Russian Samovar" with the help of the public relations agency via3pr organized some Vodka-Tasting action for many well known citizens of New York as well as others, less known. To keep everyone entertained various competitions were organized centered around the most popular Russian drink- Vodka. In one game, the competitors had to taste four different flavors of vodka (cranberry, horseradish, peach, coriander) and guess the flavor of the vodka. Speed was a key factor in this contest and Oleg Sulkin, a well known journalist of the Russian newspaper Novoe Russkoe Slovo was clearly the winner. For his efforts he was awarded “Romance with a Samovar”, by Anatoly Nayman, a book written about the Russian Samovar. Other winners of the night included Dima Poyman, Arkady Milavsky, and Simon Kapilov who all received bottles of Vodka courtesy of the Kings Bay liquor store. Even though these were the winners, there were no losers, as prizes and gifts were awarded to all participants. After the contest, the contestants had to walk in a straight line and read letters off of a chart under the supervision of makeshift police officer Olga Shendrik who was wearing a very intriguing policewoman outfit. Later on, all were allowed to try the different flavored vodkas. For the invited guests a buffet table was organized and for this special night, vodka was available to all the guests.
The second half of the evening was equally entertaining as it involved the reading of poetry, some home-made, and others by well-known authors. The poetry was devoted to the Russian favorite drink vodka and other related activities. The well-acclaimed musician Sergey Pobedinsky sang and played guitar. Throughout the night guests were drinking Balinoff vodka as well as the flavored vodka and at the conclusion of the evening all guests were given mini bottles of Imperia vodka. In general the night went according to plan and was simply wonderful. All guests were overjoyed and promised to return to this great venue more often. The proud owner of "Russian Samovar", Roman Kaplan promised to arrange such parties again. At nearly midnight everyone went home with big smiles on their faces.

Nadia Petrova

Nadia Petrova, a great Russian Tennis champion came to the Samovar to celebrate her victory over Venus Williams. She likes traditional Russian dishes and ordered borsht and pelmeni. Nadia looked radiant and happy and drank a little cherry vodka later in the evening. She asked the pianist to play “an unknown star is shining over us”. The presence of a star makes the evening exciting and another good evening at the Russian Samovar electrifying.

Crazy Night at RS

Yesterday was a crazy night at the restaurant. As they say, “the joint was jumping.” All the seats were taken. Among the guests was Valery Ponomarev, the famous trumpeter, who played with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and with the greatest American bands. Ponomarev, along with many other guests, came to congratulate TV journalist, Olga Cherny on the upcoming birth of her first child; it’s going to be a boy. At another table sat the Editor-in-Chief of Sova Magazine, Elena Nesterova, who looked great in her sexy cocktail dress. Across from her sat Alain Malraux, the Playwright and the son of the famous Frenchman, Andre Malraux, who was Minister of Culture in the time of General De Galle’s presidency. Alain is 60 years old and very distinguished Playwright whose play was recently shown in an off-Broadway production. Most of the people at the tables knew each other and the atmosphere was one of friendliness and goodwill. Pianist, Alexander Izbitser entertained the guests through the night.

Celebrate the Present

Elizabeth Holtzman, a former member of US Congress and a friend of Joseph Brodsky's, came in with a friend to spend the evening at the Russian Samovar. I met Elizabeth about 20 years ago at one of Joseph’s Birthday parties. We talked about how many lives Brodsky had touched and how he brought together so many people. Elizabeth’s friend turned out to be a professor at a Hebrew University so the conversation turned to Israel. I came up with a bleak prediction that once the situation becomes desperate, the Israelites would use the bomb and that will be the beginning of a world-wide nuclear war and the end of the world as we know it. It started in Jerusalem and it will end in Jerusalem. This is my pessimistic view of the apocalypse. I wish it would not happen. In the meantime, let’s enjoy this life and that’s what we did clinking glasses at the Russian Samovar.

Opera Night at the Russian Samovar

Yesterday, a few young people came to RS to taste our icy infused-vodkas on a hot summer night. They happened to be graduates of Julliard School of Music and began singing many world-famous opera arias. Our regular customers asked for more and more and couldn’t stop applauding. What a great night and just one of many special spontaneous performances at the restaurant. One of the singers, Irina Dubovoy, especially impressed the crowd when she sang a few of Calman’s melodies followed by Bizet's Carmen. They were all surprised that our pianist, Alexander Izbitser, knew all of the operas and sang together with them in the original languages of the arias.

Death of a Dissident

Alex Goldfarb just published a book called “Death of a Dissident”. I’ve known Goldfarb for 30 odd years. In Russia he was a dissident, in America he joined the faculty of Biology at Columbia University and showed himself to be a capable scientist. Some years later, he became a capable administrator in charge of the Soros’ foundation, where he helped Russian scientists who survived the terribly difficult years of Perestroyka. He also organized American doctors who volunteer their services to fight TB in Russian prisons. He helped Alexandre Litvinenko and his family defect to England. Litvinenko was a former Russian FSB agent who was rather knowledgeable of many secrets of the Russian Security Services. In the book, Goldfarb asserts that Litvinenko was poisoned by FSB agents in an act of revenge for divulging of Russian State Secrets. He supposedly wrote the book with Marina Litvinenko, but it’s clear that Goldfarb wrote most of it, if not all, by himself. The book is written in English, showing Goldfarb to be a highly educated and intelligent person. A week or so ago, Alex and Marina Litvinenko were guests of Charlie Rose, arguably the best TV show host. Goldfarb was very impressive and answered all the questions with precision and agility. Last Thursday he came to the restaurant and brought two books. One was for me and the other for the well known Russian-American journalist Vladimir Kozlovsky. I don’t know what Alex wrote for Kozlovsky, but on the book he signed for me he wrote: to Roman Kaplan – owner of a haunt where dissidents and spies hang out.

Art and Entertainment in Russian Samovar

Mikhail Simoman, a wonderful young violinist from Moscow, came in for a brief visit and played famous Broadway melodies at the restaurant. Mikhail Baryshnikov and Vladimir Radunsky, a well known artist and illustrator of children’s books also came to celebrate the publication of their mutual undertaking, a children’s book called “Because”, which they presented earlier that evening at the 92nd Street Y.

The renowned sculptor, Ernst Neizvestny brought some friends from Moscow to introduce them to the Russian Samovar, while the artist Shimon Okshteyn came over to tell of the great success of his one-man shows in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Mikhail Arol, a well-known art collector, returned from a series of art auctions in London where a work of Oleg Tselkov, a Russian painter who lives in Paris, was sold for $400,000. The prices of works by Russian painters of the 60’s keep growing. Pieces that were $30-40,000 a year ago have grown ten-fold

15 Years of “Soloists of Moscow “

Yuri Bashmet invited me to the 15th Anniversary celebration of his “Soloists of Moscow Orchestra”. It was 15 years ago that Yuri came into Russian Samovar in NY and introduced me to his orchestra for the first time. The orchestra’s performance that night in the big hall of the Moscow Conservatory was the last in a series of grueling performances, as they were finishing up a huge tour of Russia - performing in 40 cities in 2 months. The day after the event, they left for another concert in Paris.

The ‘tout Moscow’ attended the concert – many of Russia’s well-known musicians, actors, artists and writers. Among them was Alexander Tchaikovsky, t he Director of the Leningrad Conservatory and the famous actor, Oleg Menshikov. It was scorching hot in Moscow and the theater was an inferno, but still full o f eager listeners who bravely sat through the entire concert. Afterwards, there was a reception in the covered courtyard of the newly reconstructed Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, which was hosted by Leonid Yarmolnik. At the end of the night, Sati Spivakova drove me home.

While I was in Moscow, a good friend of mine, Dennis Sedov- a tall, good-looking, opera singer with a beautiful voice, came into Russian Samovar. He often performs in America and quite recently played the part of Figaro. He will soon join the Cincinnati Opera for Mephistopheles in Faust. During my stay, I also met Renat Davletarov, who informed me that he will be bringing the Russian Film Festival to NY at the end of October and promised many new and exciting films.

Joseph Brodsky's Birthday

It was full downstairs in the restaurant while my good friends and I were upstairs in the VIP room. We gathered there to remember Joseph Brodsky, the Russian-born poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987. He passed away 11 years ago, but is still remembered by many people whose lives he’s touched and still lives on in our hearts until this day. We all drank his favorite vodka- Coriande, but didn’t clink our glasses together. We remembered all the good times we had together and one of my friends recited a poem by Khrzhanovsky, which says: “I asked god for an easy life, I should have asked him for an easy death”. We recited poetry, watched the movie “Poltara Kota”, which we dedicated to him. People kept coming and coming, it was another warm night at the Russian Samovar.

Doctor Jazz

It is May 23 and today, the environment, in my restaurant was more than festive. There was a performance by Dr. Jazz; a jazz group, with the members, Roman Epstein (sax), Alexander Philipov (piano), the leader of the group, Edward Shultz (Contrabass) and Natalia Liposherst (vocal).

At the same time, on the second floor of the restaurant, was the birthday of Alec Goldfarm, a professor of Biology who helped Alexander Litvinenko flee Russia. There were many famous people there; among them, the artist Vitali Komar.

Sunday, May 27,2007

He opened the piano and I felt as if I were in Carnegie Hall, because the music was so loud and serious. Vadim Rubinsky played the music of Chaikovsky, Skryabin, Rachmanov, Musorgsky, Stravinsky and the people dining at Russian Samovar that evening were truly astounded by the drama. During the concert, the guests were silent as a conversation was out of the question. Then Alexander Izbitser, our pianist, sat down at the piano, the tension evaporated and everyone went back to having a good time.
Last week, Azari Plissetski, the younger brother of Maya Plisetsky stopped by Russian Samovar. He used to be a great dancer, but is now an excellent choreographer. He lives in Switzerland and works as the Executive Choreographer for Maurice Bejart’s ballet group. With him was his cousin (with the same first name of Azariy but his last name is Messerer), who is a pianist and journalist. Both families, the Plisetsky’s and Messerer’s, have been, for a long time, one of the most famous families in Russian Ballet. When Maya was having lunch in a restaurant one day, her husband, the famous composer Rodion Shedrin, asked Alexander Izbitser to play “Swan Lake”. After a few counts, the great ballerina, still sitting on her chair, moving only her upper body, arms and head, danced the part of the swan.

Two weeks ago, Mikhail Baryshnikov, along with the famous Leningrad director, Lev Dodin visited the restaurant. He brought with him to New York, a group of twenty-eight Drama School students that finished his course this year. Mikhail Baryshnikov showed his students in three days what Dodin taught over the course of five years. The theater was completely sold out. Former students, which were now professional actors, danced, sang, and played musical instruments, showed the wonders of acrobatics, and demonstrated their skills in stage reading. They spent their last night in town at the restaurant “Russian Samovar”, in the VIP room on the second floor.

Every time that Khorostvsky’s in town, he must stop by the Russian Samovar. During his last visit, he introduced me to his three-year-old son Max. I don’t know whether he liked me or not, but he did smile throughout the whole night. That must mean that the bearded man did not scare him one bit.