With its red leather banquettes, specialty caviars and extensive champagne list, the Russian Tea Room in the heart of Manhattan has been attracting New Yorkers through its golden rotating doors for nearly a century.
But on Thursday, the landmark fine dining restaurant on New York’s 57th St is quiet.
Just seven diners wander in between midday and 1pm (four walk straight back out). None are keen to talk about Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The restaurant was founded in 1927 by members of the Russian Imperial Ballet who were fleeing communism, and this week it put out an emphatic statement condemning the unprovoked invasion.
“Just as the original founders, Soviet defectors who were displaced by the revolution, stood against Stalin’s Soviet Union, we stand against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and with the people of Ukraine.”
But according to posts on social media, staff have been targeted for harassment online, and the restaurant has fielded death threats.
When asked about those reports, a front of house staff member tells The Independent: “It’s social media so, you know.”
The scene at the Russian Tea Room stands in stark contrast to the outpouring of support for Ukrainian businesses in New York.
At Veselka, located in the East Village in a section of lower Manhattan dubbed Little Ukraine, every table is occupied just after 1pm on Thursday, and around 15 people wait outside in 4C temperatures to be seated.
Veselka owner Jason Birchard is busy packing donated supplies into boxes in a storeroom next to the restaurant to send to Ukraine to help with the humanitarian effort.
Boxes packed with nappies, baby formula, gloves, batteries, bandages and cans of food are spread throughout the room.
Mr Birchard told The Independent he had been deeply moved by the offerings.
“One of the first donations yesterday was an elderly woman from Ecuador, who probably didn’t have much to give, but she gave a couple hundred dollars worth of baby supplies. I gave her a big hug. We’re all brothers and sisters.”
Mr Birchard is working with a non-profit and a local church to send the desperately-needed supplies to Ukraine.
He is also donating proceeds from every sale of borscht, the Ukrainian beet soup, to the relief efforts – and has raised $10,000 in just a week.
Business has doubled since the invasion began a week ago, Mr Birchard says, putting extra strain on the restaurant’s Ukrainian staff, who are trying to keep up with news from relatives as the Russian bombardment of residential areas intensifies.
“There are unarmed civilians stopping tanks. If they can do that there, I’m going to do whatever I can here. We don’t give up easily, it’s inspiring to see.”
Reports of the increasingly barbaric Russian tactics were making it hard for staff to concentrate on work, but keeping busy helped, he said.
“I’m upset, I’m angry. I was a true believer that diplomacy would play out, that the threat of harsh sanctions would deter this aggression, but to see what’s happening with the bombing of innocent women and children… It’s just so vile.”
Veselka has been owned by Mr Birchard’s family for three generations since it opened in 1954.
Now, some staff were considering returning to Ukraine to enlist in the military, and Mr Birchard said they had his full support.
“It’s not only a war on Ukraine, it’s a war on the free world. Please keep Ukraine in your prayers.”
In its heyday, the Russian Tea Room was a favourite of Hollywood A-listers such as Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch and Barbara Streisand.
Comedian Rowan Atkinson married his first wife Sunetra Sastry at the restaurant in 1990. Dustin Hoffman turned up for lunch there in drag while preparing to film his classic 1982 film Tootsie. And President Joe Biden hosted an awards ceremony there in 2018.
New Yorker Dan Getman, 37, who works in renewable and infrastructure banking, took his wife Merav to the Russian Tea Room just before war broke out.
The couple enjoyed a late Valentine’s Day meal of chicken and vegetarian pie, with a couple of glasses of 12-year-old Tullamore Dew and dessert for around $200 with tax and tip.
“It was delicious, amazing, just as good as it has ever been,” he told The Independent.
Mr Getman said he was appalled at the abuse being directed at the restaurant and its staff.
“It’s just so f***ing dumb, that people are spending their time doing that.
“All these people that are calling up the Russian Tea Room and giving them s***? It’s so alien to me to look at something like Russian Tea Room and say ‘those guys are the problem’.”
Mr Getman wanted to show his support for one of his favourite New York restaurants, which has only just come through two years of the Covid pandemic.
He said the story of the restaurant’s original owners was inspirational.
“These people are now Americans. They have some affinity to their home country – that just makes them human. People are upset, I’m upset, but try to channel that energy for good.”
