Russo Americano

I’ve spent my weekend in one of the nearest small towns. Walking around its cozy narrow streets I came across this inviting café.

What could be better than popping into a warm café on a chilly fall day? When you are too tired to continue your town exploring mission but too excited to drink coffee at home. (Un)fortunately, I belong to that group of people who prefer to take photos of different coffeehouses without visiting them, let alone drinking a cup of coffee there.

I know I’m not an example of what a model tourist should be in the eyes of coffee shop owners. Yet I think this owner would be slightly surprised to know that the door of his small cafe can be seen by a great number of people from all over the world. Even if the information about this café existence is the last thing they wanted to see scrolling through their Reader.

No matter how hard the owners try to make their coffee shops look authentic (to me, this antique white table is marvelous) it’s customer service that has great importance in attracting and retaining a loyal clientele. As you may know from my other posts I like collecting stereotypes and myths about Russia and then dispel or confirm them. So I decided to summarize the most common stereotypes about Russian café/restaurant/coffee shop customer service.

Here they are:

1) You have to wait too long for a waiter to notice you.

2) You have to shout to the waiter too loudly because chances are they won’t notice you at all.

3) If you were lucky enough to get your meal, you have to wait too long for the waiter to bring the bill.

4) Do you still hope to see your waiter’s smile? No way. Russians never smile.

5) These places are popular among women with their female friends and you will hardly see a male customer there.

I think that there’s no need to say these are just stereotypes. The bottom line is you have to be assertive to get what you want. As for #5 I tend to think that their husbands or boyfriends exist, but they have probably gone off to war or maybe they are just sitting at a sports bar around the corner. Otherwise, those women are not assertive enough to get what they want.

#WhoKnew #HereToStay #WindowDrinking #AmomentOfCoffeeAmidstTheChaos #WhatAreYouWaitingFor #ForWomenOnly #SomewhereInRussia