the Yar restaurant and gypsy romances

THE THEATER SEASON BEGINS IN MANY RUSSIAN THEATERS.
***
 AND I WILL START THE REVIEW OF THE SEASON OF RUSSIAN THEATERS HERE FROM THIS remarkable place — the legendary restaurant Yar (or Yard in the old fashioned way)
The magic of gypsy romances and Razgulyai in Moscow fascinates both capital revelers and lovers of a beautiful, well-fed, intoxicated life, as well as guests from all volosts since the opening of the Yar-Yard.
Even before the revolution of 1917, there was SUCH CONCEPT:
WHO HAVE NOT BEEN IN THE MOSCOW "YARD" HAS NEVER SEEN MOSCOW!!! YES, and her posts were more often not a decree.
***
Romance
HEY, DRIVERS, DRIVE TO YAR was born precisely from the impressions of visiting the cult restaurant.

Music by A. Yuriev
Words by B. Andrzhievsky

What is so sad ... Take the guitar,
Sing a song about love
Ile better go to the "Yar"
Warm up the blood with champagne ...

Hey, coachman, drive to the Yar!
Oh, horses, brother, do not be sorry!
You harnessed the three - not a couple,
So take it, brother, hurry up!

Dark night, white blizzard,
Snow dust will sweep,
I will sit in the sleigh with a friend,
The troika will carry it from the spot.

And when we arrive at Yar,
Warm up, friends
And under the ringing guitar
We will sing until the morning ...

Hey, coachman, drive to the Yar!
Oh, horses, brother, do not be sorry!
You harnessed the three - not a couple,
So take it, brother, hurry up!

Authorship in different sources is given differently. In the discography of Yuri Morfessi (1882-1957), the authors of the song indicate: "A. Obukhov - E. Yuryev" (record of the Sirena company)
The Moscow restaurant "Yar" was founded in 1826 and got its modern name from the distorted surname of its first owner - YARD, a Frenchman by birth. In 1917, after the October Revolution, it was closed, and a club for Red Army soldiers was housed there. The building was repeatedly rebuilt, later the government hotel "Sovietskaya" was located there, which also had a restaurant - "Soviet"; the hotel with the fall of the USSR tode fell into decay during the crisis, then restored; in 1998 the restaurant "Yar" was reopened in the building; address - Leningradsky prospect, 32; in the same building - the gypsy theater "Romen".
This I briefly, then we will consider the interesting history of Yar and everything connected with it, more than one century.
The romance is iconic, very popular in different circles, the gypsies sing it a little differently
one.
What is so sad - take the guitar
Yeah sing a love song
Ile better go to the "Yar" -
Warm up the blood with champagne.

There are young gypsies
They will sing and dance all night.
I'll give them gold
I will drive the sadness away!

Hey, coachman, drive to the Yar!
Horses, brother, do not be sorry.
You harnessed the three - not a couple,
So take it more fun!

Moonlit night, white blizzard,
Covered with snow dust.
I will sit in the sleigh with a friend,
The troika will carry it from the spot.

And when we arrive at Yar,
Warm up, friends.
And under the ringing guitar
We will drink until the morning.

Chorus.
Hey, coachman, drive to the Yar!
Hey, box, gonin ea to the camp ...

(The chorus is sung twice. The words and music were written no later than 1917. Yard is a Moscow restaurant located in Petrovsky Park)

2. Hey, coachman! Drive to Yar!
Something sad, take the guitar
Yes, sing a song about love,
Or better to go to Yar,
Warm up the blood with champagne! ..
There are young gypsies
They will sing and dance all night
I'll give them gold
I will drive the sadness away! ..
Chorus:
Hey coachman! Drive to Yar
Horses, brother, do not be sorry,
You harnessed a triple, not a couple,
So take it more fun!
I will have fun there
I'm going to party all night
To forget for a while
The night would be fun to live! ..
My coachman, whisper in your ear,
So pull up the horses
That no one, like my Vanyukha,
Do not ride away!

Chorus. Hey coachman ... drive to Yar ...

Moonlit night, white blizzard,
Covered with snow dust
I will sit in the sleigh with a friend,
The coachman will sing a song.
But when we go to Yar, warm up, friends,
And we will drink to the sonorous guitar until the morning!
Chorus
Hey, coachman ... drive ka to the camp ...

Stage performers of the romance:
Soloist of the gypsy ensemble *Svenko* PETER YANISHEV
Yuri Morfessi, Vladimir Samsonov
Alla Bayanova, Sergey Volchkov, Eduard Khil
Deanna Durbin
IRINA SHORKINA - soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic

LET'S GUESS, WE DONT LOSE!
So what was, what is, what will be?

Well, it's so sad to take the guitar.
Yes, sing a song about love ...
Ile better go to the "Yar"
Warm up blood with champagne?
This is how the old Russian romance advises us to “warm up the blood with champagne”, as our ancestors used to do it in the chic and luxurious Moscow restaurant Yard. It is easy for us to do this today, but where to go? A modern taxi driver will most likely take you to Leningradka, where the Sovetsky Hotel, the Romen Theater and the Yar restaurant are now located. But if you and I were in the 30s of the 19th century, then we would have to drive in a cab to the corner of Neglinnaya and Kuznetsky Most. Just on the former bank of the Neglinka River, which is now in a pipe underground. And in general, it would be necessary then to go not to Yar, but to Yard. Because the restaurant got its name from the name of its founder, the Frenchman Tranquil Yarde. Over the years, the letter "d" seemed to be erased, and the YAR turned out. “There, young gypsies will sing and dance all night long” - and this is true. In those days, the singing of gypsies and the restaurant were, as they say, "in one bottle." The famous gypsy choir Sokolov performed in Yar. The popular singer of this choir, the gypsy Stesha or the real Antonina Soldatova, who was called the Russian Catalani (Italian singer). They say that even Napoleon, when he lived in Moscow in 1812, wished to listen to Stesha and sent for her from Moscow, but she was in Yaroslavl and sang for Russian soldiers.

The old building of the Yar is located on the former county possessions of the Volyn, Vorontsovs, and Beketovs, who owned it at different times. At the beginning of the 19th century, the side of the property that overlooks the Kuznetsky Most was divided and sold to different people. One of the owners of Shavan, an employee of the Senate office, rented part of the house to Yard for the opening of a French cuisine restaurant and a hotel. Here is what they wrote then in the Moscow newspapers: “a restaurant with a lunch and dinner table, all sorts of grape wines and liqueurs, desserts, coffee and tea was opened at very reasonable prices.” Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin himself loved to visit that very old Yar on Kuznetsky. He ordered his favorite raspberry rhubarb soup there. He was here at the wake of his friend Delvig in 1831, together with Baratynsky and Vyazemsky, he stopped by here and immediately after exile in Mikhailovsky. I probably ate delicious, and even wrote down my impressions like this, listening to
Gypsy choir of the theater "Romen":

How long will I be in anguish hungry
Fasting involuntary to observe
And cold veal
Truffles Yar to remember?
***
Many philosophers, statesmen, writers and poets met here in Yar. At the end of the 30s of the 19th century, Yar first moved to neighboring Petrovka, and then away from the center to Petersburg highway (now Leningradskoye) to Petrovsky Park (green territory today
Yar building on Petersburg highway
occupied by the Dynamo stadium, the square and interchanges of the third transport ring) and began to be considered a country restaurant. One of the reasons for such a long-distance move was the tightness of the premises and the impossibility of the performance of the gypsy choir in the city center. Yar of that time was a real center of gypsy singing and a merry feast. We went there for a walk for a few days. If you went to Yar, then, as they say, do not expect a quick return. In that Yar, as Gilyarovsky wrote, they no longer went, but fell. It was a small one-story wooden building. In 1895, Yar was acquired by Aleksey Akimovich Sudakov, and on his behalf, in 1910, the architect Erichson built a new building in the Art Nouveau style, the one that we still see on Leningradskoye Highway.

Before the revolution, Yar was the most prestigious restaurant in Moscow.
Paml painting - Merchants,
new Yar building by architect Erichson
officers, golden youth, beautiful women. Spending the night at Yar's in Petrovsky Park was a special chic. Here was the outskirts, it was possible to relax and rent "numbers" after a fun feast. Yar's regulars were Savva Morozov, Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Przhevalsky, Anton Chekhov, Alexander Kuprin, Vladimir Andreev, Fyodor Chaliapin and Maxim Gorky. Here, Grigory Rasputin boasted of his caftan, claiming that Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself had done it for him. There is a legend that once Rasputin came here in a strong drunk and indecent appearance. And they refused to let him into Yar for such a view. Then he went to the pit yard next door, persuaded the peasants, promised them a drink and a reward. They dismantled the wall on the back side for him, and Rasputin rode a troika straight into the hall, frightening those present with his sudden extravagant appearance. By the way, his future killer Yusupov also came here. Nicholas II also visited Yar in a special imperial box.

What the unimaginable did not happen here at that time! For example, at the end of the 19th century, a company of swindlers and cheaters "Black Jacks" had a stormy rest here. They did different things. Once they decided to go to Yar with a whole funeral procession with songs. Approaching the entrance, their leader came out of the coffin, he and his friends and the whole company, having thrown the coffin, went to the restaurant, and the numerous procession was released back home. Venetian mirrors were smashed with bottles of champagne, mustard was smeared on the faces of waiters, and addresses for cabbies were written with chalk on the backs of waiters. After the revolution, the restaurant was closed, and its last owner, Alexei Sudakov, was arrested. During the NEP period, the restaurant was briefly reopened. Then a film technical school was placed in the building, which in 1930 turned into VGIK. Then there was a cinema, a gym for the soldiers of the Red Army, a hospital and a club for pilots. Immediately after the war, it was decided to build a hotel here and the old Yara restaurant adjoined the hotel building. "Yar", thus, became an ordinary "Soviet" restaurant, however, the food there was still wonderful.
A few years ago, the hotel and restaurant were restored, and now the Sovetsky Hotel is a very prestigious hotel establishment within Moscow. Plus it's legendary. The hotel still has Stalin's room, in which he liked to receive guests from foreign countries. Now you can easily settle there or arrange a working corporate party for 24,000 rubles per day! Mireille Mathieu stayed at the hotel, Marina Vlady and Vladimir Vysotsky lived for months.
***
Nowadays, one of the parts of the former YAR restaurant houses the world's only gypsy theater "Romen". That is, the gypsies sing in Yar as before. And in another part of the Yar, a luxurious restaurant in the Russian Empire style with stunning interiors, balconies, chandeliers - like a hundred years ago. On the stage in the evenings, live orchestra will perform for you Mozart, Brahms and Chopin, and after that you can see an enchanting show similar to Parisian cabarets in the Russian way - they sing, dance and surprise with unique circus numbers. This is the most extravagant and elite show in a restaurant not only in Moscow, but throughout Russia. Even the equipment of the stage and artists deserves admiration - almost a kilometer of silk, organza and velvet, 3000 Swarovski crystals, 3000 pheasant and ostrich feathers, 120 m of white boa and more than 50 natural fox and arctic fox skins. Table setting is exquisite to the point of unimaginability. Well-trained waiters will bring you exquisite dishes of traditional Russian cuisine, and they can put one dish in front of you together - one puts a plate, the other opens the contents of the dish in a shiny vessel covered with a lid! Yar still remains for Muscovites and guests of the capital the personification of luxury and mystery.
So the Russian proverb is true - Whoever has not been to Yar has never seen Moscow. Text editing Svetlana Astakhova