Warsaw Poland
April 1st 2012
You like vodka? We have the best in Poland, here try this one, Potóćkí. You know the price? You don’t need to know, you are my guest, you are at my table. Here, you have to down it at once, with me. You are from Canada? Yes, I have been there—I go hunting there often, elk and grizzly bear, northern British Columbia, but they are not as big as in Siberia, on the Kamchatka, I am going there next month. I also hunt in Africa. You can hunt here also, wild boar, deer, even buffalo, but it is not the same. Russia and the Ukraine—they have good hunting, maybe it is the only good thing they have, sadly. Have you been there? If you had you would know what I am talking about. It is the Wild West, and I don’t mean that it is interesting and exciting, it is unpredictable and dangerous. I own 40,000 hectares of land in the Ukraine. It belonged to my family before the war, when it was part of Poland. I am pursuing a restitution case in the courts there. These things take time, it is irregular in that country. You can’t count on the courts only, you have to have protection. That is the way it works. I am a lawyer. I know these things. I work in business, business from Russia, business from America. The country here is good now, the chances are ok, we have waited a long time for that. Here, try this vodka, it is even better, but you have to follow it with plum brandy, I know that it is a peasant’s drink, but every country has its rural traditions, it is what keeps the place true to itself. Here, ask these girls, they know, they will tell you the same thing.
When you arrive at the restaurant U Kucharzy—one Michelin star—in Warsaw on a Friday evening without a reservation you sit at the common table and dine with whomever is there.