|
There comes a time in every Russian's life when they have a hankering for smoked tongue, pork neck, sturgeon, Moldova pastrami or gypsy bacon. Maybe a cranberry drink with a picture of Rasputin on the label.
Those urges might be easy to satisfy in Moscow, but Ottawa? In fact, such desires can be satiated here. In a plain-Jane strip mall at Baxter Road and Iris Street sits Lakomka Delicatessen, where you can get your smoked-skumbria fix.
But why in Ottawa's very conventional west end, with other strip-mall tenants such as a pizza place, a Chinese food take-out, two hair stylists, and a neighbourhood bar? Why not in a small enclave of Russian residents, wherever they might be? But Alex Rovt, 53, who with his wife Val runs Lakomka, doesn't think ethnic. He thinks retail.
"It's close to the Queensway and everyone knows where the IKEA store is," said Mr. Rovt of his rather WASPish digs. Recent Russian immigrants to Ottawa, between 8,000 to 10,000, Mr. Rovt estimates, are mostly spread across the west end.
His store has become a gathering place for Russian emigres. The first language in this store is Russian and almost all the customers do their business in that language. "If you hear a strange language, it is English," says Mr. Rovt.
Typical of the customers is 40-year-old Andrew Babaev, who came to Canada on a vacation, was offered a job, and stayed.
The medical technician works at the Ottawa Heart Institute, lives in Orleans, but still finds time to buy his favourite Russian marshmallow treats at Lakomka for his fellows at the hospital. The rest is Canadian history. The former Muscovite gets to chat in Russian at the store, which has become a touchstone for that ethnic community.
"You will not find here strangers," says the 53-year-old Mr. Rovt, who left Ukraine in the former Soviet Union in 1991. "I'm very happy. Very nice people come in here." For 13 years, he had been unable to get a visa from the Soviet government until he finally succeeded in coming to Canada. "I wanted to be free."
Inside the store, the decor is rather late five-year-plan, with a Soviet banner on the wall extolling the virtues of a worker. When you think of Russia, consumer goods don't rush to mind. But on the shelves is a wealth of goods of which Loblaws rarely gets a whiff. There are vats of Russian pickles, sauerkraut, herring and pickled tomatoes. Mr. Rovt says the pickles in Russia are often used as chasers for a glass of vodka.
They could easily have called the store Perogies R Us, given the bags and bags and bags of the potato-based fat inducers on the premises. And then there is chocolate. Chocolate from different Eastern European countries, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, sugar-free chocolate. And some of the packaging is worth putting on display, its artwork so elaborate.
There are samovars for sale, and Mr. Rovt maintains that his caviar is the best in the city. There is even a corner of Finnish food, as per a customer's request, and a large selection of canned mushrooms.
Mr. Rovt says his customers come from as far away as Kingston and Cornwall and, because his store serves a particular community, he quite often knows the names of the people who buy from him.
"Sometimes we could not be nice" in the Soviet Union, given the political troubles there. Those pressures are gone in Canada. "Here, we are very nice."
And Lakomka has a Russian counterpart in the mall. Berezka Russian Bookstore has recently opened with a wide selection of audio-visual goods. In addition to books, there are North American-style magazines (Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Car Magazine) in Russian as well as CDs, DVDs, calendars and newspapers.
There are even baseball caps with Soviet-era logos (how Communism and baseball joined in fashion bridges an almost impossible cultural gap) and T-shirts.
Obviously, there is retailing synergy between the bookstore and the deli. Maybe the little Baxter Road mall will become a destination for Russian emigrants. Perhaps we have the beginnings of Brighton Beach in Ottawa.
You can often trace recent world historical events from the waves of immigration to Ottawa. Post-Vietnam War immigrants fled that ravaged country to form a community in the Somerset-Preston area that rival the traditional Italian and Chinese groups in the area. Troubles in the Horn of Africa have created a community from that region in Ottawa's old west end.
Now with the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, Lakomka tells another tale of world history reflected on Ottawa's streets. And with them, immigrants bring distinct cultures that contribute to the Canadian mosaic. So pass the gypsy bacon.
| 
