Nikita Nikolaev, manager of the "Tavern" at the "Yamskaya" hotel, knows every guest of his place. Here they try to respect the tastes of customers, prepare a variety of dishes, including dishes of Russian cuisine according to old recipes. The menu contains dishes that have become hits for regular guests resort "Zavidovo".
Nikita, how do you please your guests? Is there a zest in the "Tavern" menu?
- We try to feed our guests with Russian cuisine, with small digressions. And brisket is a retreat dish, I guess. Rather, it is an American dish. This is beef, breast cut. The meat is cooked for 14 hours at a temperature of 120-130 degrees, and is languishing closed. Chips are added. The meat is pre-marinated in spices, which spices we use is a professional secret.
There is a streak of fat in the breast cut. When cooking, it melts, and the meat becomes even juicier, a piece of meat is periodically watered with melted fat. Therefore, the brisket has such a delicate taste, the meat literally falls apart into fibers, melts in the mouth.
In Russia they love meat and love large portions. All our dishes are large portions. We serve meat in a volume of 300 grams. Plus a side dish - potatoes, sauerkraut, cream-based pepper sauce. The sauce is not spicy - it should not interrupt the taste of the dish.
I know that you even consulted with restaurateur Arkady Novikov regarding the intricacies of preparing brisket and sauces for it?
- Yes, we specially went to Arkady Novikov, the famous restaurateur, to his restaurant "Brisket". At that moment we were already making the brisket ourselves. It was interesting for us to exchange experiences, to listen to their opinions on our sauces (then we were making porto sauce based on red wine). Novikov himself was then in the institution. We were greeted warmly. We were even offered to put on dressing gowns, took us to the kitchen, showed all the cooking processes, the smoker in which the brisket is made. They have expensive equipment. We made our smoker ourselves, according to the drawings. We were offered to try their sauces. By the way, their versions of sauces seemed a bit harsh to me, I like it better when the taste of the sauce only slightly complements the taste of the meat.
I will be glad if Arkady Novikov now comes back to our resort "Zavidovo", to the "Tavern" of the hotel "Yamskaya". We will gladly treat him to our brisket. You can stay at the Radisson hotel, our Yamskaya hotels or the Zavidovo boutique hotel, but we offer you a delicious lunch at our Traktir. We will be glad to see such guests!
Brisket is really an incredibly tasty dish, but it's not cheap. Do they often order it?
- We buy meat from a quality supplier Primbeef, it is not cheap. In addition, meat loses about 40 percent of its weight during cooking. Therefore, the food cost of this dish is high.
You have another delicious meat dish - ribs. What is this recipe?
- These are pork ribs, they languish for two hours at the same temperature of 120-130 degrees. Also in a smoker. Serve with the same side dish - potatoes, sauerkraut, pepper sauce.
This is not Russian cuisine, but rather American. We love beer. We have two types of draft beer: the Dutch Heineken, a light lager, and Affligem, a Belgian unfiltered beer, a dense floral. In Russia, it is customary to eat meat with beer, so we have introduced these two meat dishes to the menu, and they are invariably popular.
Are the brisket and ribs always available? Or are they special dishes and are prepared to order or for some holidays, events?
- During the season, we buy 15-20 kilograms of beef and the same amount of pork ribs per week. And all this is eaten up. In general, we always have these dishes in stock. For the sake of brisket and pork ribs, people come to us specially, we never stop such popular dishes. In general, I do not like it when something is not in the institution, when I come to some restaurant and they tell me that there is no dish that I have chosen, it is very unpleasant and upsetting. I believe that if a dish is indicated on the menu, then it must be available in order for the guest to be satisfied.
What do you order most often?
- Brisket is ordered very often. In general, most often they order from us "Brisket", borscht and dumplings. We make dumplings ourselves, by hand. Our guests love our borscht very much! We try to ensure that not only the taste, but also the color of our borscht is rich, because aesthetics also affects our love of food.
What dishes of old Russian cuisine, maybe recipes of Yaroslavl cooks, do you use?
- We have pike cutlets on our menu. They are very popular. After all, this is a really tasty dish, and even an old recipe. In our everyday life, we rarely eat this: not everyone will cook pike cutlets at home. And being our guest, a tourist has a great opportunity to taste this dish. And the atmosphere is inviting.
The minced meat used for pike cutlets contains fish, pike fillets, and some bread. We buy fish; it is difficult to find large volumes from local suppliers. We buy pike for cutlets and salmon for steaks and salads.
You have very tasty liqueurs - one more feature of "Traktir". Is this your recipe?
- The recipe for tinctures is our own, I prepare them myself. Our regular set is horseradish, limoncello, cherries, cranberries and black currants. We have now started serving two more new infusions: grapefruit and feijoa. But these are seasonal infusions: these fruits do not tolerate freezing well, so we prepare these infusions from fresh fruits.
We usually make 10-15 liters of tincture at a time. It sells for a month in high season, or 2-3 months in low season. We sell our liqueurs to-go as a souvenir. We have a branded bottle "Yamskaya" with engraving, a ready-made tincture costs 2 thousand rubles.
Are the teas that you serve at Traktir also brewed according to Russian recipes?
- You can say yes. We have a Tver supplier who grows Ivan tea himself, and this drink is popular with us. We make a mixture: ivan tea, lemon, mint - in a French press, but you can also order pure ivan tea in a teapot. There are also teas with cranberries, sea buckthorn, currants, raspberries.
Do you use organic products?
- Not at the moment, but we hear constant requests for this from our guests. Since there is a demand, it means that we will definitely include organic in the menu. There is no longer the question “will there be?” The question is “when”. We want to do this in the near future. It will hardly be possible to completely transfer the entire menu to organic products, but not even because of the high cost: our guest is still a wealthy client. Rather, due to supply difficulties and some technical issues. But we intend to use partially organic meat and dairy products in our kitchen.
You say that there is a demand for organics. Are you interested in guests' wishes and impressions yourself?
- Yes, I constantly communicate with our guests. These are not only guests of the Zavidovo resort. Local residents also come to us from the village of Varaksino. And our visitors already know us well, all our staff. I always ask our guests if they liked it, what they would like to try in our establishment. Therefore, I know the preferences of almost every regular guest, and we try to follow them.
Your "Traktir" is located in the first hotel "Yamskaya". The second hotel "Yamskaya" has a huge hall with cozy large sofas and tables: do you also feed your guests here?
- During the high season, the hall of the Yamskaya -2 hotel is open for us all the time. On winter holidays, our fireplace was constantly burning, the bar was working - three additional employees of the hotel and the tavern were allocated for this. The hotel lobby will also be open throughout the summer. In the summer, we also put tables on the summer veranda: everyone wants to sit in the fresh air. And usually in the high season we have a constant full table occupancy here.
Will there be a menu update for the 2020 season?
- Yes, we try to periodically add new items to the menu. We are currently revising the menu and in a month it will be updated. Of course, all popular dishes will be kept. But we will add new ones as well. For example, stuffed cabbage. We want our guests not to know our menu by heart, so that we always have something to surprise and delight them.
Nikita, you have been running the "Tavern" for a long time. Tell us who your staff are, how did your team come to Zavidovo?
- Yes, I have been managing the "Tavern" for a year and a half, since the opening of "Yamskaya". I graduated from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration with a degree in State and Municipal Administration, and worked in parallel with my studies at the university, since 2012 I have been working in the field of public catering. Our team was invited to "Zavidovo" suddenly, we quickly began to work, first with the menu that already existed, and gradually made our own changes. All the staff of our "Traktir" are from Konakovo, good specialists.
My wife is an English teacher by education, but she came with me and works in the "Tavern" as a waitress. We are from Tver, but I only go there a couple of times a week, we spend almost all days here in Zavidovo, so we decided that joint work would help us spend more time together.
In many places on the walls there are photographs of celebrities who have been there. Do you want to start such a tradition? After all, well-known persons come to dine in the "Tavern" too
- We do not do this on purpose. We really often have famous actors, hosts of the main TV channels, businessmen and so on. But we understand that they come to us to relax, to rest, they do not want to be recognized. We would not want them to feel like stars again. They are just our guests - every guest is dear to us. We are pleased that they are comfortable, cozy, tasty and easy with us.
