How did the desire to settle down with the "Children of Paradise" in St. Petersburg arise?
I love Peter. And then "Children of Paradise" is a very successful project, so why not develop it? In St. Petersburg, unlike Moscow, there is a huge fund of beautiful premises: old doors, large windows with great views. In Moscow you opened a nice place- and you sit in it and look out the window at some, excuse me, ITAR-TASS. We were looking for a place for a cafe for a long time, and when we found it - at 20 Rubinshteina Street, next to the Dodin Theater - we immediately understood: this is our place, and we simply cannot leave here.
To put it briefly, what is the ideology of "Children of Paradise"?
In short, in her absence. The other day I read the text of my beloved and respected restaurateur and culinary specialist Alexei Zimin, dedicated to his new project, and everything is described in such detail, in every subtlety, so stylish, so fashionable that I will never go there. Walter De La Mare has this verse: “Great Wings,” Susie said. "Ship," Helen said. “And I would like to ride in a cart without haste,” Jen said with a sigh. It's not a lack of ambition, we have a lot of ambitions, just others. We want people to come to us and feel at home - in the sense of peace. So that they are not fashionable, but warm. To the wedding here, and the wake. To sometimes play softly live music and the food was delicious.
Is the restaurant business a way to make money for you?
In our country the legislative framework, all the rules and regulations are arranged in such a way that when you open a restaurant or cafe, you spend more energy than you earn money. In any world capital, I, the co-owner of several restaurants, would be a very wealthy woman, but here I can’t say the same about myself. Any person who is connected with the restaurant business in our country spends a huge amount of time and energy on absurd things like communicating with all sorts of inspections. Why I still haven't quit all this is a mystery, I have no logical explanation.
A few years ago you were a well-known music critic, and now you are learning opera vocals from Larisa Gogolevskaya. What's happened?
Once, for work, I went to St. Petersburg to see Dmitry Chernyakov's performance Tristan and Isolde. I hated the opera, could not stand Wagner and didn’t really know anything about Chernyakov - and I thought: where am I going, why, should I run away during the intermission? Then I sat down in the hall of the Mariinsky Theater, the performance began, and after a while I realized that I had disappeared. I sat and was tormented by the thought that while I was engaged in no one the right job criticism, other people are passionate about a serious and important matter. I quit and went to learn to sing. Then everything happened somehow by chance: I met Chernyakov, we became friends, a few years later I became insolent to such an extent that I asked him to ask Gogolevskaya, who sang the part of Isolde in that performance that shocked me, could I go to her listening. She agreed, apparently, I sang well, and she took me to her class.
You led a movement in defense of Professor Anatoly Ryabov, who was falsely accused of pedophilia. Why did you, a disinterested person, get involved in this matter?
Look, this is actually not the first and hopefully not the last such case in my life. It's just that the word "justice" means a lot to me. When there was an anti-Georgian campaign, I took part in organizing a Georgian party at the Winzavod. Or, for example, when the young pianist Alexander Lubyantsev was undeservedly cut off at the Tchaikovsky Competition, journalist Yulia Bederova and I were able to win him the first professional prize in the history of our country. music criticism. The story with Ryabov is probably the most striking, which is why I remember it. It pisses me off when something unfair happens.
With the director and musician Alexei Paperny, you are partners not only in business, but also in art. Do you plan to continue playing in his performances?
Alexey is writing now new play, but whether there will be a performance based on it, I don’t know and I have no idea if there is a role for me there. I think it's better to ask him. He's the director, not me. His performances are always made with great effort, they are, as it were, outside the “fashionable” theatrical context. Paperny has no state support, no cool producer. At the same time, his theater is unique and honest. You see, I have many director friends, I like different performances. But papernovskie - deep and real. For example, in the theater it is now not customary to talk about love in a serious tone. But with Lesha, we are trying to muster up the courage to “talk about it.”
When I was four years old, I think, I was sent to kindergarten. Some very good. For fuck's sake. A week later, something unpleasant happened to me there, and I became numb. Well, that is literally. Eyes began to look different sides. They treated me for a year, dragged me to the doctors, then miraculously (by pull) they sent me to the luminary-professor. Cured. And I was never sent to any collective sections again. School doesn't count, it couldn't be avoided, and I didn't feel bad there either. There was nothing.
Or, for example, in the village, in the summer. Chernozem, Tambov region, children from good families, our grandmothers were friends, our mothers drink on the terrace, our older sisters make lampshades and patchwork quilts. The consonant buzz of insects, Antonovka with branches to the ground. Paradise. We, ten-year-old children, spend the night with the Sarabyanovs in the hayloft. There are fifteen of us. And I'm not bad, no, I'm separate. I'm having fun, arguing with younger brother, fall in love, and sing in two voices with my sister. Everything is fine. I still don't understand what is separate. I do not understand that the word "friends" is not a synonym for the word "like-minded". I don't understand what I'm missing is the feeling of intimacy. And without it, paradise is not paradise.
I'm already twenty, and someone says: "Do you have LiveJournal"? I am instantly drawn in, of course. Into this very closeness, into the illusion of closeness, all the more beautiful because it was decidedly invented. Random. I lose my head from the feeling of almost a Masonic lodge: LJ is for the few, for the elite, and they are all wonderful. Oh, do you have LJ too?! Yes, we are made for each other, what a coincidence. Two or three years pass, and suddenly someone writes nasty things in LiveJournal. Or, for example, someone writes nasty things about you. "Varvaraturova, as usual, in his repertoire, read, vomited."
And you, for example, wrote about something that was of no value in the process, and was once incomparable with a midnight conversation on LiveJournal (it seemed that there was nothing more important in life than these, until 5 in the morning with a stranger talk about “Return to Brideshead” or “Spring in Fialta”?) - about just a village, Antonovka, about how Kolya Sarabyanov rolled you on a frame along Podlesnaya Street, or better along Butyrki, because there are solid bumps on Podlesnaya. Wrote, shared with a distant, unfamiliar (and not the fact that existing) friend. And he read and vomited. Like this? After all, this is masonic lodge. After all, it's only cool beautiful people write in LiveJournal. There are no bad people there! It is impossible to understand why someone needed to write a post about “read-vomited” there.
I have many foreign friends. Each of them has a Facebook. Every time I tell them about my (and not my) conflict on Facebook, they are terribly amazed. They ask again. Where did you fight? They cannot imagine that Facebook can be a platform for a serious/heavy/important/poignant conversation. They post photos on Facebook from the New York City Marathon, a vacation on a Greek island, or a concert. I can’t imagine that one can go down every day to the “Azbuka Vkusa”, which I have below, under the house, only to find out, in all seriousness, the fundamental questions of life in line at the checkout.
My foreign friends don't understand how you can quarrel on Facebook, just like I don't understand why swear in line at Azbuka Vkusa. My foreign friends have real freedom, I guess. And there is no need to defend every opinion on every issue, as the first time. How in last time.
Recently, I arranged a meeting in our club "Workshop" following the results of the mayoral elections. I called there people with very different opinions. I really wanted a normal exchange of these views. Among all my acquaintances, with great difficulty, I found one person who voted for Sobyanin. Because he likes Sobyanin as mayor. (Not for me, if anything.) This man came to an environment that was absolutely alien to him, and some women began to shout “shame on you” at the very first minute. And you know what? He was the only one to give way to a woman who arrived late and was left without a chair. It happened, I understand. But nonetheless. He stood up and offered her a chair. My Democratic friends didn't budge, of course. I'm not saying that my friends are worse than him. By the way, I have best friends in the world. Or that Sobyanin is better than Navalny. (I don't understand this.) That's not why I'm saying this. I'm just hinting at this amazing fact, again. If a person does not share your views, this does not mean that he is a goat. This does not mean that he is a nonentity. Or that he is "out of his mind." This means nothing. He just doesn't share your views.
It seems to me that the end of the world has come, everyone is aware, but I missed something. I missed the moment when everyone agreed with each other: "Guys, let's do this now, disagreement on a number of issues automatically means the abolition of elementary rules of decency." The people around had no braking mechanisms left. Why slow down, when we are going straight to the underworld anyway? It's the end of the world. Sometimes it seems to me, what a pity that life is not a pioneer camp (which I have never been to in my life). What a pity, I think that does not exist general rules behavior. But in fact, the problem is not the lack of rules. Rules - the sea. They are chasing us at every corner, jumping out from behind every turn, do not lean against, do not stand under the boom, there is no traction - you can’t use the device, don’t climb in - it will kill you, 10 commandments, in the end (more precisely, at the beginning of the beginning), and “Wikipedia generally says bluntly: “Be objective; in particular, don't write about yourself." The problem is not that there are no rules.
The problem is, when you're sledding down an icy hill or rolling into the underworld, you've seen these rules in your coffin. The problem is that, having seized upon the feeling of freedom in the 90s (as once before the feeling of intimacy), the so-called "we" clung to it, to this freedom, to this, sorry rough tongue a cliché, a heady chance of freedom, a stranglehold, and so they remained - in a state of passion, drunk, bound hand and foot, but with freedom in their teeth.
It doesn’t stop people around that the person they write nasty things about (or like nasty things about) is the husband of their girlfriend. Or brother. Or daughter. That this man, for example, had just nearly died. Or, on the contrary, saved someone's life. Nothing stops, go for a walk, flaw, I think he's shit, why should I restrain myself, "don't deceive me"!
There are a million explanations for this. Almost all will be true. Well, in the sense that “how they strangle us,” and we, like springs, rest against the walls with our hands, and rudeness is better than lack of freedom. About how tired everyone is. About how everyone can not agree with each other. About the fact that too little time has passed since the 90s, and we have not yet learned how to exist in such a way as to act together, to protest together. To finally replace the illusory feeling of closeness with real closeness. To sober up.
But here's the thing. My old and long-dead piano teacher, seeking muscle freedom from me, said: “Freedom and laxity are two different things, Varya.” Freedom also means obligations. Freedom is not only the ability to say what you think. Freedom is also the ability to give up freedom. Freedom of speech includes the ability to remain silent.
You know, the world will not collapse if you just don’t write outrageous rudeness once, even if you write about yourself unpleasant person in the Universe.
Windsor Castle will stay without you, the world will not collapse without your opinion, without your rudeness, without your anger and without your aggression.
And without mine, yes.
Varavara Turova
culture art society Man snob, varvara turova
Varvara Turova, whom I “met” through Facebook, of course, is an absolutely amazing person. The beauty, the singer - did not hear, but I think that everything is in order with her voice, some terribly popular Moscow person - well, we can assume that she is also bohemian, well, in any case - party, the owner of some Workshops and bohemian restaurant, musicologist, journalist - with a beautifully hung spoken language and even better - literary, in short - some kind of universal nature, and most importantly, with all this - sincere, kind and surprisingly real - that's such an interesting person. So, a roll call with her:
Barbara: At least another 10 days of the strictest voice rest (that is, silence), antibiotics, inhalations, rinses, medicine, silence around, no opera music you can’t even listen, don’t sing, don’t talk, don’t be in places where it’s noisy,
In general, for the first time in my life, do not sing Easter stichera to me this year.
Is it not a sense of humor, is it not irony that the most difficult test for me is not at all battles, not confrontations, not upholding justice, not tournaments in shiny armor, but just to be silent, just a little bit, Var, to be silent?
Yes, the Lord is wild witty man. He seems to be hinting at Facebook too.
In the city of Herceg Novi in Montenegro, if you go up to the fortress wall from the entrance to the city, on the left there will be a shop where strict saleswomen in white coats catch round, wet homemade cheese with ladles, and are annoyed that you don’t know which one what is the name of. In the same store, I once bought a large package of small multi-colored bell peppers, and then I left it in the kitchen when I left, because I don’t know how to cook anything from these peppers, but they were so good that it was impossible not to buy them. In the city of Herceg Novi, unlike the rest of Montenegro, it is always a little sad and a little foggy, like in Fialta, yes. Today in Moscow there is exactly the same light and color as in the city of Herceg Novi.
And one day I decided to go to New Year(for many years I went away for the new year alone to some beautiful place) to Italian baths. Back in September, I booked about the coolest beautiful hotel with columns and balconies, where Callas stayed, where Princess Grace stayed, and all sorts of other nice people, bought a ticket to Milan, spent 3 days in terrible Florence (brrr), took the train early in the morning , and at 9 am I was at the station of the town where these baths are located. Further, everything is true as in this story, “everything is wet - piebald trunks of plane trees” and so on. Fog, complete silence, the train dropped me off and left, birds sing lazily around. Haze. Has reached, without hurrying, with a suitcase to hotel. And it turned out that the last time she was the coolest and most beautiful was when Princess Grace stayed in it, and since then, approximately, they haven’t even swept there. I love lost heaven and shabby luxury, so of course I was delighted. The people at the reception, each of whom was at least 70 years old, came to the same delight. And then a signorina comes to them, in an almost empty (with the exception of a couple of couples under 80 years old). Capelli Rossi. December 30 bitch. One. In general, it is not clear why to them. They ran in, fussed, gave me a huge heavy key, settled me with a view of the garden. And an hour later, to my polite, over a cup of tea in a huge dining room with a painted ceiling and thick old cowarms, a question regarding, so to speak, the term, they answered in surprise: “Signora, the terms have not been working for 15 years, they are closed for reconstruction.”
It's not clear what I'm talking about.
Well, in general.
I: Varya, wait, how is it, how is it - “terrible Florence” ?! Yes, this is one of the most amazing cities in Italy, but what is there - take it - the world. Instead of rotten non-working thermae, it was necessary to urgently run to the Cathedral of Santa Croce to wash the soul, where the frescoes of Giotto, which were not completely peeling off, would make you stop in amazement at the fact that it is so simple, so eternal, and so essential, where every step taken would have responded echoes of a bygone time, and the sarcophagi of all these incredible, long-gone people would amaze with the fact that above them - right in front of your eyes - their spirit would soar. Eh, Varya, Varya… And the Uffitz Museum? Do you know what there are in a secluded corner glowing inimitable emerald color Kikimore-like Adam and Eve? I have never seen such amazing Adam and Eve. In this very corner, it immediately became clear to me that we nevertheless descended from amphibians, and therefore we are so drawn to water ...
And the streets are so narrow, almost like in Venice, where a pedestrian walking towards you forces you to press against the wall - but in Florence, instead of a pedestrian walking towards you, a daring Florentine biker rushes at you at breakneck speed. At the same time, he manages to go around you, even if you did not have time to slip into the nearest entrance or slam into the wall of the house. Oh, Varya, Varya ...
Barbara: Florence is the city from my nightmares. You walk 2 meters away from the gingerbread beauty and find yourself in some kind of Catholic thriller, in which, for our Christ, that is, not ours, they will stab you in the back with a knife. A gloomy, cold city without feelings, emotions and its own face. Deception, closeness, icy indifference, these are the words about Firenze, and these are the most terrible words of all my most terrible nightmares, yes. Icy indifference.
I: No, Varya, this is not icy indifference, this is a city that keeps secrets behind its seeming gloomy silence. Yes, it really gives the impression of a heavy monolith that presses on the soul, and somehow there is nowhere to fly out to whistle on the nearest branch. Agree. But this is a magnet city, it attracts with its dual character, it is not a gray scenery left after some long-ended performance provincial theater there is history in every corner. Presumably unhappy. But interesting. Zhu-u-ut :))).
Barbara: Who OK argues with those, that history. it's just that the story that this city tells is unpleasant to me. inexplicable, debatable, erroneous - okay, but what can I do about it.
Natasha: You can't go back there. To these old people, I mean. This story is already in the treasure chest. And good. There will be a new one. The main thing is to see right away. Not later. So much beauty all around.
Barbara: Well, not a fact. Sometimes you can go back. sometimes you can't. There are no such exact rules that here. box. locked, that's it. No. It may be different.
I: I don't really understand what story is locked in the chests. In my opinion, she does not lie there - they put her there. In fact, all human passions are muzzles, according to by and large making history - and Florence is crammed with them from edge to edge - do not change at all with time. Decorations - yes, but the foundation remains. So - history is not at all a chest stuffed with old rags, it is an endless and very lively source for all kinds of thoughts and sucking, and as for all kinds of destinies - well, there is something to dig into. Perhaps more interesting than in modern times. Moreover, it's all filtered and compressed - so the density of the material - give it a go.
Only now - as if returning to Florence 😉 in this conversation - I realized that someone was talking about what, and I'm talking about Yeryoma. I'm sorry. Here the stories seem to have been mixed up - “personal” and “public”. 😉 You probably can’t return to your personal one - it will still be different. I was talking about a story stuck in the corners of a Florentine house, how they stuck grass or whatever in log houses - so that it would not blow through. I just wanted to say that it is stuffed with history - and in order to walk its streets, crunching this history under your feet, you need to know a lot about it. I don't know, I'm just guessing.
Am I wrong again? Why am I wrong all the time?
Continuation - not about Florence: (from private correspondence) (the first two - first, and the last - then):
Varya, I absolutely sincerely admire you. I can't understand how it can be so free man in such an unfree country. It's just something amazing.
However, the States is also not a free country, but in a different way. But you are just a giant, absolute. For me, this is a combination of some incompatible things - publicity and depth, lyricism and relevance. Marvelous. You just amazing person. And I'm proud of my "friendship" with you.
8 hours ago
Varya, tell me - is it possible to somehow help Alexander Pan? After all, he could simply go to jail for nothing. Even though he suffers while protecting another. You were at Ryabov's trial, weren't you? Can anyone come and speak in his defense?
28 minutes ago
Varya, so what about Sasha Pan? Or have you decided not to respond to this? I don’t want to put pressure on you at all, but we just kind of “met” in connection with the “case” of prof. Ryabov - and this is his vile continuation ... I can’t believe that good deeds are done in your country only “in public”. I don't think it's in your nature at all. Maybe I'm wrong?
Varya, excuse me, I’m not at all going to “teach you how to live”, but for some reason I think that helping a talented violist who is in trouble because he defended another seems somehow much more natural than pulling people out of the homeless some failed "neurosurgeon" brought by the western winds to Russia, who own initiative became an alcoholic. Sasha is really in danger of being imprisoned. And, most importantly, why? That's the scariest thing. I do not know if you have any resources for this, but at least some channels could be launched - you are a public person.
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In Moscow, the cafe "Children of Paradise" is closing, which lasted 6 years. In recent years, he has been haunted by a series of failures: a fire, a flood, officials, an invasion of the Revizorro program (ended with a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor) and the last straw - the reconstruction of Nikitsky Boulevard, due to which all approaches to the cafe turned out to be. Varvara Turova, co-owner of Children of Paradise, told Inc. why she refused crowdfunding, how she kept the restaurant afloat and why she dissuades her from doing business in Russia.
“In the last year, as a shareholder, I did not receive a penny”
- What was the last straw after which you decided to close the Children of Paradise cafe?
There were so many that I can't even remember. When, after months of a torn road, mountains of dirt and sand (it was impossible to get to us), the sidewalk was widened on Nikitsky Boulevard, we were delighted and thought: we could finally get permission for a full-fledged veranda, which we had never had in 6 years. But literally the next day, the whole house was loaded into scaffolding and they began to repair the facade, so that we were no longer visible from the street. We are located in a fairly passable place, but due to the renovation of the building and the torn road in recent weeks 30 people came to us a day. So you can't survive.
- How many people came "from the street"?
Enough. It always seemed to me that if you only have “your” audience, you are doomed. The number of guests must increase all the time. It did not decrease, but there were a huge number of problems. In the spring we had a fire, then a flood. And all this time we had a schizophrenic war with the neighbors from above: they hated us to such an extent that they stuffed rags, sand and other garbage into their toilet and flushed it all down with water - as a result, a plumber went to us as if to work .
"Children of Paradise" was opened in April 2011 journalist Varvara Turova and musician Alexei Paperny. By the time the cafe closed, 25 people were working. In 2014, a branch of "Children of Paradise" was opened in St. Petersburg - and closed at the beginning of 2016.
According to SPARK, until June 6, 2017, Alexei Paperny, Liana Zeynalova and Yuliana Slashcheva, the former general director of the STS Media holding and wife CEO TASS Sergei Mikhailova. Another 15% belonged to Turova and 10% to Natalia Sichkar. In June of this year, Slashcheva left the company. The revenue of Bulvar LLC for 2015 amounted to 10.5 million rubles, and the profit - 15 thousand rubles.
How did this losing streak start?
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, there have been several moments of crisis when we thought - should we close? But every time they swam out, clung, hoped that it would become easier. But it only got worse. Because of the sanctions, prices have risen sharply - not only foreign, but also Russian products have risen in price. Our expenses have doubled. But we couldn't afford to raise prices.
How much did you raise them?
A little bit, but not in such a way that it becomes profitable. Otherwise, we would lose the loyalty of the audience. With the same number of people, we began to earn much less than 4 years ago. Then I lived only on my share of the profits from the "Children of Paradise", and this allowed me to travel and exist normally. And for Last year I, as a shareholder, did not receive a penny. IN best months we went to zero or a tiny plus sign.
Did fewer people visit you?
No, on the contrary, we have developed and become quite a popular place. But the economy of the restaurant is arranged in such a way that a lot of things need to be taken into account: payroll, rent, public utilities. Not to mention that the rules of the game change all the time, and sometimes officials do it retroactively. For example, last year they came to us and said: “We are not extending your lease because you do not have a separate room for storing wine.” We answered: “Excuse me, for the previous 5 years we managed with wine shelves and a cabinet and there were no complaints.” But it turns out that they introduced new rules - and they had to build a partition, make a separate room. Naturally, officials do not pay these costs. Because of the mass of such trifles, the business turns into a struggle for survival.
- When did you decide to close?
We fluttered to the last and tried, like that mouse from the parable, to beat the butter so as not to drown. They tried to find an investor and change something, turned to various restaurant chains and business sharks, but nothing happened. They themselves are not doing well (which was a big surprise for me). No one wanted to take risks, because it is very difficult for everyone.
- What role did the Revizorro program play in your closure?
After their visit, our revenue fell by 2-3 times. It took about a month and a half to restore it. That day I was at home, our employees called me and said in a trembling voice: "Revizorro" has come to us. I say: why did you let them in? But it was impossible to stop them - film crew came with the camera turned on and, without hesitation for a second, immediately went to the kitchen. Once again I will say: they were not interested in dirt, but in scandal, and everything that is shown there is a lie. You can come to the cleanest operating room and muddy chamber with gloomy music to remove such horror that you will feel crawling snakes there. In addition, the journalists of the Pyatnitsa TV channel wrote a statement to Rospotrebnadzor, which came to us with an extraordinary check. Well, you can guess how we resolved the issue with the inspectors. Actually, no one can solve these questions differently. So there were, shall we say, additional expenses.
- How much did "Children of Paradise" earned last year?
I can't name the numbers, but I'll give you an example: three years ago, the revenue on Fridays and Saturdays was 280-300 thousand rubles a day. And in the last year it was 130 thousand rubles a day - with the same number of people. The average check has almost halved: the prices of our suppliers have increased, people have become much more economical - they ordered less and left less tips. I don't blame the closure, only the evil ones external forces. To think through the economy in these new circumstances, you need to be super-professionals. Neither I nor Alexei Paperny are such. I am busy in the theater, Alexey is a musician and playwright. We spent a lot of energy on the "Children of Paradise", but this was not our life's work. Unlike their fellow professional restaurateurs, they devote all their time to the business and therefore stay afloat.
- Is the closure of "Children of Paradise" connected with the departure of Yuliana Slasheva?
We were not dealing with her, but with her husband, but no - this is in no way connected. Because neither Yuliana nor her husband Sergei Mikhailov have had anything to do with the management of the "Children of Paradise" for many years. Once upon a time they were our original investors.
- Have they invested in cafes in recent years?
No. We have not had any working relationship for many years - only friendly. (Yuliana Slashcheva, in a comment to Inc., noted that she left the founders of the company a year and a half ago, but the data on her exit were published in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities only on June 6 of this year).
Why did they decide to go out of business?
This is a question for them.
- Do you feel sorry that "Children of Paradise" are closing?
How can I explain to you? I can not live without opera house, but without "Children of Paradise" - I can. But, of course, I am sad - I spent 6 years of my life and quite a lot of energy on this. Of course, it's a pity.
"Open a business anywhere but here"
You recently wrote that your business never worked out, but it turned out to be “a place in which many felt good, important, warm.” Isn't that enough to make the cafe profitable?
There should be a clear priority - why are you doing it. I am sure: our so-called colleague Mitya Borisov (restaurateur, Jean-Jacques, John Donne, Mayak - Inc.) opens absolutely all his places to earn money. He succeeds. And when we opened a cafe, we put other things in the foreground - for example, the atmosphere. It's not that we are such a carefree, lyrical intelligentsia - we wanted to make money and we did it. But it was more important for us to treat friends who came to visit than to refuse it for the sake of additional revenue. I am not a commercially oriented person, and I don’t have a business mindset - that’s why we didn’t succeed in cutting costs, firing someone, acting tough ... It has always been important for us to help someone, treat someone for free, arrange various charitable topics. As a result, we are without money, and I do not remove our collective responsibility at all. To be a ballerina you have to be flexible, but to do business you have to be tough. I'm not a tough person, Alexey too.
- When you started "Children of Paradise", what did you think of this institution?
We didn't have ambitions to be a trendy DJ bar. We wanted to open a nice cafe where you can come after work or a hard rehearsal. To make it cozy, tasty and no unjustified show-offs - this is when the girls ask you from the doorstep “Are you expected?”, And then they follow you around the hall. In a word - to feel at home. In this sense, we have succeeded - if not to talk about business, but about the implementation of the idea. "Children of Paradise" has become an important place for many: the number of people who wrote that our closure for them is a personal loss shocked me. I absolutely did not expect this and am very grateful.
Ekaterina Zaklivenetz/Inc.
- Why didn't you turn to all these people for help, didn't do crowdfunding?
There was such a thought. Moreover, we would certainly have collected the required amount - we have a large credit of trust. But my partner and colleague Alexei (Paperny, musician and co-owner of Children of Paradise. - Inc.) was against it. He said that this is a business, and in business you can’t ask anyone for anything - we ourselves have gone bankrupt and are to blame.
Have you tried hiring a manager?
This is what we did in Masterskaya - we hired a management company that managed our business for a good fee. But she began by offering to redo everything. For example, in the "Workshop" there were many different lampshades in one line, and it was very beautiful. And the manager says: lampshades are not fashionable, it’s like in a country house and you need to remove them all in order to make trendy place. I tell him: places are different, and we are good at creating a homely atmosphere, which means that you need to work with this product. So the last attempt to hire a manager did not lead to anything (the Masterskaya club, which was opened by Varvara Turova and Alexei Paperny, closed in November 2016. - Inc.)
- What would you do differently now?
I would not open Children of Paradise. If someone comes to me tomorrow and says: “Here's a lot of money for you, let's open Children of Paradise!”, I will say no. IN modern Russia you have to be crazy to be in business. It seems to me that everyone who has money should invest in business abroad. This is caused by my feeling of the air around. Leveling, tightening screws and so on will continue, and there is no way out of this. There was simply no more unfavorable moment to start a business in Russia. People often write to me: “We want to open a small cafe, what would you advise us?” I dissuade them and advise them to open a cafe in Berlin, Tel Aviv - anywhere but here.
- Do you want to finish with the restaurant business?
I'm going to finish doing business in Russia for good. I love to feed people, I like it when guests come to me, I like being a hostess - this is mine. But in Russia, until this power is replaced, it is not worth even trying. I say this without disclaiming responsibility for the fact that we went bankrupt. But everything that happens around kills business. And small, and medium, and any.
- And abroad?
As long as I live here and I don't have a concrete plan of moving. Now I am interested in opera, my efforts have been directed there for 4 years. I study in St. Petersburg, and in June I entered office work in Moscow - you need to live on something. I am very sad that there will be no more “Children of Paradise”, but in a sense it is right - you can’t do everything.
All my childhood, almost every Sunday we went to church. Russian Orthodox.
We went there with my parents, and it was terribly reluctant to get up, it seemed that my throat hurt, it seemed - that's all, just not to go.
And then, for example, Easter. And parents are driven to sleep during the day, because at night there is a service. And here t They dress you up in some beautiful skirts and take you to church at night. There are cops in front of the church, trying to keep them out, trying to insult their parents. But all this is the norm. And the church is the norm, part of life.
And here I am sitting on the floor, for example, I am 6 years old, and there is a crowd of people around, stuffy, the air can be cut into pieces - it is so concentrated and saturated (is there even such a word?), Priests in multi-colored cassocks, and the whole church shouts in unison "Truly Resurrection",
And then you go out into the street - and from somewhere you have the strength to immediately run around, scream, fight, have fun,
Then at home a huge table, and the battle hard boiled eggs, and, of course, it is impossible to eat them all, Easter cakes, and royal Easter, which is wildly difficult to make and which of all the families I know, only ours makes, and how delicious it is!
Or on the Trinity, when everything is in the branches, everything is green and procession in the middle of summer
Or we, Anya, Mitya, mother, all of us, and Father Alexei Uminsky, stand in an empty, locked church and pray for little Alyosha.
Or weddings, when "a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife; and the two become one flesh,"
And christenings, and babies screaming with resentment that they were suddenly dipped into the water with their heads without warning.
And confession, of course.
I don't like how the church smells, I don't know exactly what it is - incense? But even this smell is some kind of such a huge part of me that it is already impossible to tear it out.
I can't help but belong to this church.
This is my church.
And you, Father Chaplin, have nothing to do with her.
Somehow it turns out that for many people, and more and more for me, the border between My Church and the Russian Orthodox Church thinner and thinner, and more and more disappointment, resentment, the feeling that something is happening that cannot happen in principle,
The Volga stopped flowing into the Caspian Sea, and now it flows into the Black Sea, and I don’t know how I can live with this.
I cannot endlessly explain to my friends - do not put an equal sign between Orthodoxy and the ROC, I can no longer persuade them,
I know for sure that it is not gay parades, dances at the altar and jokes about the patriarch that are killing the church, it is you, Father Chaplin, and your numerous and amazing like-minded people who are killing it.
Maybe some enemies are paying you? Perhaps you have been possessed by a demon? Because everything can't be explained so simply that you're just such an idiot?
Do you really not understand what you are doing?
What are you doing with My Church.
It's very hard.
Very.
