Restaurants in Soviet cinema: where the heroes of their favorite films dined

The restaurant industry in the Soviet Union began to develop in the 20s of the last century, when the government allowed the opening of private catering establishments. So the first cafes and restaurants appeared in Moscow, Leningrad and the resorts. But they existed in the form familiar to us for a short time. Already in the 1930s, when the NEP period ended, people began to eat using coupons for visiting canteens and shops. Commercial restaurants operated according to strict standards: for example, in a European restaurant the standard of food was 3 kilograms per person per month, and in many other establishments a certain price was immediately set for a certain lunch.

And yet, going to a restaurant has always been a holiday for every Soviet citizen. And the appearance of a restaurant in films was the best advertising of the institution. In this material, we recall exactly where the heroes of our favorite Soviet films dined, and now we tell what happened to these places.

The film about the Soviet plumber named Afonya was shot in Yaroslavl. Here, in the residential area of ​​Bragino, there was the legendary cafe Assol, which became the location for one of the scenes. “So you were with me yesterday at Assol? That’s what I saw, a familiar face!” – Afonya says to the plasterer Kolya the morning after the “party”. By the way, the place itself operated until the early 2000s. True, it has changed a lot. Now the premises have become completely unrecognizable: the glass windows are covered with brickwork, and all the signs have been removed. Now a grocery store operates on the site of the cafe, and a beer bar called “Afonya” has opened in Yaroslavl in memory of the classic Soviet cinema.

In the film “Give me a book of complaints” the Dandelion restaurant had a bad reputation: it was dirty, the food was disgusting, and the staff tried to be rude to all the guests. But in reality everything was exactly the opposite. And even the name of this place was completely different. They shot the film in the Khrustalnoye cafe, which was located at the intersection of Kutuzovsky Prospekt and Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Street, which had not yet opened at that time. Later, by the way, the place became legendary, but, alas, did not survive to this day. But now in the same building there is an equally popular place among Muscovites – “Coffeemania”.

Vladimir Menshov’s Soviet film “Love and Pigeons” was filmed in Karelia, Essentuki and even Batumi. By the way, in the latter city there was the legendary cafe “Oriental Sweets”, where the main character Vasily Kuzyakin and his mistress Raisa Zakharovna discussed the features of alternative Philippine medicine. By the way, the cafe is still open today. True, it is now called Coffeetopia Batumi. The interior here has not changed much, but the stained glass windows from the film were still replaced with ordinary ones.

Station cafes were a popular type of catering in the Soviet Union. And the film “Station for Two” perfectly demonstrates how this system works. The shooting took place in the building of the Rizhsky railway station in Moscow, where a local cafe operated. In the evenings, it was an a la carte restaurant open to everyone, and during the day it was a dining room. The technique was as follows: waiters put ready meals on the table a few minutes before the arrival of transit trains, and arriving passengers had only 20 minutes to eat. There were only two trains a day, so sometimes the doors were opened for those who had arrived at the station in advance and were waiting for their train.

Cafe “Lira”, located at the very edge of Pushkin Square, was an iconic place for every Muscovite. By the way, the famous episode of the Soviet film “Seventeen Moments of Spring” was filmed here, where Stirlitz, who came to the restaurant to meet his contact, was approached by a drunk female mathematician with the words: “They talk about us mathematicians like crackers – it’s a lie! In love, I am Einstein.” After the release of the film, the cafe existed for several more years and was closed in the late 80s. The first McDonald’s in the USSR was later opened on this place.