At Kyiv’s Beatnik Bar last spring, the mixologists wrestled with the question of whether they should even try reopening. Their families were mostly under Russian occupation in eastern Ukraine, many of their friends were on the frontline. Was it really the right time to be worrying about making and selling high-end cocktails?
But they had emptied their bank accounts while volunteering, needed money to live and to support the war effort, and figured the government could do with the taxes.
