Papa's (near Lubyanka) bills itself as a friendly place, eager to
please all, including the expat community. I've encountered numerous
mentions of them at expat.ru and waytorussia.net. However, my
experience there this weekend would seem to suggest it's just another
source of bad anecdotes of backwards Russian ideas of service. My
friend and I were "faced" coming back from a cigarette while already
dining there with a larger party for no discernable reason. What
follows are the details for any who are interested. However, I thought
it would be prudent to warn our little community that Papa's is not an
expat friendly establishment.
I had been to Papa's once before. I was alone and enjoyed a lovely
personal pizza and was impressed with the quality of the food and
service. Everything was fast and friendly.
So having a party of five with me this weekend I decided that Papa's
would be a fine place for us to spend an evening of food, drinks and
dancing. There were no problems when we arrived. They sat us
downstairs in the furthest room from the entrance. It was dark but
comfortable enough. We had a pizza and a few rounds of beers and wine.
After this the other smoker and I decided to step outside as the
circulation was bad and we didn't want to disturb the non-smokers in
our party.
A quick note about our appearance- we were two mid-twenties Americans
in semi-casual but quite presentable clothes. However my friend enjoys
wearing combat boots when abroad for comfort while walking and I am
half-Filipino which means I am slightly dark. These are the only
fathomable reasons, however unjustified, that I can conceive of to
explain the treatment we were about to receive.
After our cigarettes my friend and I chatted as we came in. Though we
were speaking in English I informed the greeters that we were already
eating there in Russian. Nothing appeared to be amiss as everyone was
all smiles. As we made our way to the staircase one of the guards
placed himself between us and the stairs and gave us a threatening look.
My American friend speaks no Russian and my language skills leave much
to be desired but I get by in most situations just fine. I said hello
respectfully and then respectfully asked to proceed. He said no. I was
confused but then told him in short clear, Russian sentences that we
were already eating and drinking there. He didn't respond. I asked if
he spoke English and in English he told me that he didn't understand.
I then asked, again in Russian, why we weren't allowed to proceed. He
said "simply because." As a last effort I asked if it was a joke. He
said that he was serious.
I admit at this point I became a little upset. As I had organized the
night I was the one who was going to pay. I told him that we had
already had several rounds of drinks and a pizza and that if we
weren't allowed through I would refuse to pay. This I said in
increasingly broken Russian as my language skills don't extend so far
and I was becoming frustrated. He was silent. I then called my party,
which was difficult as they were sitting underground and the signal
there was poor. The guard watched my vain efforts with smug
satisfaction for several increasingly tense minutes.
I finally got through and then loudly said in English that, "some
barbarian" wasn't letting us down. At this word he changed completely
and started to motion us through with paniced "proceeds" but it was
already far past my patience threshhold. I told him so in English. My
native speaking Russian friends came up and the guard tried to say
that I didn't understand and that I had always been allowed to go. I
explained the real situation and insisted that we should leave without
paying.
Eventually the manager appeared at one of my friend's request and
asked the guard what had happened. The manager never once spoke to me.
The guard repeated his lie in Russian and I corrected him. I demanded
an apology and threatened to leave without paying. The manager never
once looked at me and defended his guard with some excuse about my
American friend's boots. My Russian friends tried to convince me that
our waitress would suffer if we didn't pay. At this prospect I
relented. We returned to our table, finished our drinks and paid. We
even tipped well.
Leaving, I confronted the guard and asked his name. After mocking my
American accent he told me it was Dimitri. I am sure it was a lie.
Never once did anyone at the establishment apologize to any member of
our party. At one point during the confrontation one of my party
reminded the guard that he shouldn't treat paying customers so poorly.
His infantile response was that he didn't work there. Of course he
said this while wearing his uniform.
You can take this as you like. You could just brush me off as a whiny,
self-righteous American who is over sensitive about race. "This is
Russia." Right?
Obviously I will never go back to Papa's again and will encourage any
contact of mine to do the same. We deal with enough in this city and
there are more civilized establishments out there. Please - avoid
Papa's and help support dignity in this fine city. Lets spend our
roubles in places that do their part to move Russia past lamentable
anecdotes of lousy service.
That all said, can anyone recommend other decent places where expats
and Russians can meet and have a good time? Thank you all for your
attention and suggestions._______________________________________________
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