Dear Bill B.
Thank you for your letter.I read it, half wincing that the 'kicker' of abuse
for my comments would come at the end.It didn't.We have lovely Russian friends.
I've had some excellent experiences, not the least this pastweekend when we
went to Sergiev Posad to Sveta's forrest/sleigh/plus lunch extravaganza.I
experienced something rare: a person who sought to give the best for her
clients. (It washeart-warming and we will go back again.) I suppose the
problem originates with a brutalofficialdom that cares little for its
people--the people, in turn, become colder and the societyis bled of
'courtesy'. Something like that. But, perhaps, to understand it, is not to be
able to forgive it. This harshness of the society is truly wearing on ex-pats
who are bewildered by the undeserved animosity.
Now, what is your business, Bill? Have you got a great little bakery, or
restaurant, that my wife and I may visit?
cheers,
Peter S.
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:42:01 -0500
Subject: Re: Expat List Restaurants
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
I've worked and lived in Moscow much longer than probably everyone on this
list, I arrived 19 September 1990, I worked for the US State Department at the
Embassy until Sept 1994, worked in the private sector in Moscow, married a
lovely Russian woman in 1994 and now we operate our own business in Moscow
..... there ARE many things about Russia, the Russian people and the Russian
culture that I actually love AND there are, of course, especially to us
westerners, many things that we have a very difficult time accepting and
dealing with. I also do not understand the attitudes of Russian employees in
restaurants, stores, coffee shops and so on, I decided many years ago that it
was of no productive nature to try to understand these attitudes of the
employees and so I no longer make the effort. When they perform poorly or
withhold change as has happened to you, I simply don't tip AT ALL. I usually
get the evil eye the next time, but if the employee has a decent learning
curve, he / she provides better, acceptable service then I tip and attempt to
be as pleasant with them as far as they are pleasant with me. They do seem to
love to deride us, especially Americans (holdover from the "Cold War",
probably), yet make no effort to rise to the occasion. Nevertheless, Moscow and
Russia is more than half of my life, I have a wonderful Russian wife, we have a
son together, run our family business from Moscow and split our time between
Moscow and the US. I am inextricably locked into this culture and try to make
the best of it for my own sanity, for my wife's personal feelings and to impart
on our son a sense of parity, equality and fairness, albeit seemingly often lop
sided. Just my humble comments. Bill B
2009/3/17 peter stark <[email protected]>
Of course, Moscow restaurants are abominable, but I've discovered a new low.
I've forgotten the name...it's a French bakery-cum-restaurant chain and this
particular
one is on the corner of Novi Arbat and the Kelso U-turn...on the right side.
Since I now walk about 2 km mid-mornings, I've decided to make a stopover at
this place (chiefly because they had a really nice washroom). So, the first
time, the check came to
365 Ru and the waitress blithely gives me back 130 from my 500 Ru note. I
asked: "where
is the other 5 rubles?" It took three move queries before she finally brought
me about 5 of those miniscule coins. I left that plus a 30 ruble tip.
Next day, I came in again. This time a splurged and the check came to 835 Ru.
For my
1000 Ru note I got back 160 Ru--again she (more probably--the restaurant)
swallowed
my 5 rubles. Now I was fuming. I asked a neighbour-guest to tell the waitress
that, unless
they gave me my 5 rubles, I would not be coming back anymore. The waitress had
nothing
to say. Obviously, it was restaurant policy to grab the 5 rubles for every
check as all prices
ended up with it. WHAT AN OUTRAGEOUSLY STUPID THING TO DO!
Restaurants the world over spend thousands trying to entice customers and
here's an idiot owner/criminal/manager who goes out of his/her way to spit in
the customer's eye. I fail
to understand it lest it falls under a suspicion of mine: in my 5 years here I
have learned
that the Russians' greatest pleasure is in "THE TRANSMISSION OF MISERY".
What a sadly infected mind they have!
Peter
Oh yes, one other thing: the sheer stupidity of the waitress is not to be
over-looked.
Had she kept a roll of 5 ruble pieces and given one to me, I probably would've
left
a 50 ruble tip. One would think that she would've known that since I had been
there
the day before...
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