Hello Friends,

You may have heard by now that Dom Zakuski has found a permanent home and is going to be a full-fledged restaurant. This is thrilling! I am thrilled. I am also nervous! But mainly, I am thrilled. Each day is filled with new tasks and new things to figure out and with that, new knowledge, and these all happen to be things I love.

These days filled with tasks and the-figuring out-of-things move me closer to the opening of our doors, and yet, despite feeling like important progress is taking place, opening day still feels remarkably far away. Imagine moving forward towards a tiny dot on the horizon that is your destination, and despite the fact that you feel your body moving forward, the dot doesn’t seem to get all that much bigger. That’s what it feels like right now.

Much work has been done, but there is still much left to do. New things to do are continually being uncovered by things being done (for example, a leak has emerged in the mop sink faucet that is preventing the pressure washer from pressurizing fully, which means I can’t clean the AC filter cover, which desperately needs to be cleaned and can only be cleaned at this point with serious water pressure). So, now I need to fix said leak so I can finish cleaning (but none of the plumbers are working till after the holiday weekend), so I can finally move equipment into the kitchen, so I can finally clear out the front room so I can finally restain the dining room floors so I can finally start getting the dining room situated, etc, etc, etc. Turns out what everyone says about opening a restaurant being a lot of work is true!!! Go figure.

Anyhow, all this work culminates with having the opportunity to share the food I grew up eating and loving with New Orleans. And while much of that energy is being funneled into a never-ending list of to-dos, there is also so much I’d like to share with everyone who has been so generous with their own excitement and support for this little Slavic endeavor.

So, while we work towards opening (in September, fingers crossed), I thought it might be nice to share some of what we’re working on and what I’m thinking about as we do that work. Those thoughts cycle most frequently on things like:

• I can’t wait to make so many soups (including borsch, of course)

• Gratitude for the way that food is such a powerful way to connect with ourselves, our identities, our communities, history, and culture.

• Everyone loves restaurants!! How do we better support the people that make them happen?? Can restaurant work be sustaining in the way other jobs are? Why can’t restaurant workers have healthcare? Or retirement plans? How do we pay for that, given the notoriously slim margins restaurants already operate within?

• How the heck do I concisely explain this food? This is a constant struggle. Slavic and Eastern European are the most easily understood terms, but they aren’t quite specific enough. The food I grew up eating is technically Soviet - a mix of foods from across the 15 republics - but is also a little bit Jewish and a little bit German because of my family’s mixed heritage. I reflect on this constantly, and I think this is a conversation that is very much alive among the Eastern European/Slavic/Soviet diaspora that is cooking and trying to figure out how to “ID” this food as it continues to be cooked in kitchens far away from where it originated.

• Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is often on my mind, especially so when I think about the tension of celebrating my family’s history and food (my immediate family immigrated from Russia in the 90s and my maternal grandparents lived in Ukraine for 20 years before immigrating in the early 2000s) while Putin destroys Ukraine and kills Ukrainians, wages the war of a megalomaniac, and oppresses his own people from exercising their freedom of speech and protest.

• Herring!!! Because in the end, we must find a way to keep ourselves grounded in joy and delicious things.

Dayna of Downtime Bakery in Mt. Airy, PA, who bestowed much opening-a-food-business-wisdom upon me recently, shared how a newsletter has been a meaningful way to engage their customers and community. My first thoughts was: why would I add yet another thing to the list? But, here I am adding another thing to the list. We’re going to give it a go.

The goal of this newsletter is to keep you updated with more context than other channels might allow for, and also, to have a line of communication with those who prefer a good ol’ email! And selfishly, I have much I’d like to elaborate on with this cuisine and the experience of being a first-generation immigrant, so, thanks for indulging me.

Ok, dasvedaneya (bye) for now!

Katya