Planet Berlin: Russian country cooking
Ilja Kaplan and Georgij Solanik offer authentic Russian culinary classics — and vodka — at their Datcha restaurants in Prenzlauer Berg and beyond.
Nazdrovje!
Ilja Kaplan (right) and Georgi Solanik do not fight against Russian clichés: instead, they like to exaggerate them with a slightly ironic undertone. Since the opening of the popular café bar Gorki Park in 2007, they have become an indispensable part of Berlin's gastronomy scene. With that initial experience under their belts, they started the Datscha restaurant chain. Cheers!
Dreaming of happiness
For many Russians, the dacha (English spelling) is a "personal dream of happiness," note the Datscha owners. A dacha is a country home that ranges from an allotment shack to cottage or manor. In the Soviet Union, citizens were guaranteed the right to rest and leisure. The maxim informs the Datscha concept, with the founders wanting to reproduce the good times in their dachas outside Moscow.
Beyond borscht
Datscha offers classic Russian dishes, such as borscht or beef stroganoff. However, there are also more refined options, such as a buckwheat bowl with beetroot and wild broccoli, or the fully vegetarian "Wareniki Kaliningrad" (vegetarian) made with homemade potato dumplings, asparagus and baked with bearnaise sauce.
Time travel
"Dacha is also the lifestyle of its owners," write the Datscha owners on their website. The interior is correspondingly individual. None of the three Datscha restaurants are the same. Common to them, however, is the penchant for Eastern Bloc Klitsch, which also exudes an inimitable coziness.