“What if someone built a restaurant named ‘Swastika’?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn’t a question I ever got to ask the owner of Uptown’s late, lamented (?) Soviet-themed restaurant. I wasn’t going to ask the waitstaff or the bartender; they’re working stiffs and they don’t need to care one way or the other. But when friends asked me to meet there, I was a little uncomfortable; nobody would attend, much less open, a restaurant named “Swastikas”. You could probably sneak a few themes through: Blutwurst und Boden, <\/em>or maybe Ein Fork, Ein Stein, Ein Menu<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Hammer and Sickle<\/em>? A direct reference to the emblem of one of the three most lethal regimes in history? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I went – long story. Great selection of vodka, and the best piroshki <\/em>I’ve had since the Vomit Comet killed off the late, great “Russian Tea House” on University Avenue. It wasn’t my party, didn’t need to make a fuss…<\/p>\n\n\n\n …but I wasn’t especially pained to see that the concept has apparently gone to the great restaurant Lubyanka in the sky<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But when one door closes, a window opens. Maybe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another new restaurant, this time on the East Side of Saint Paul, gets into funky historical and cultural turf – maybe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n