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The real life of a restaurant extends far beyond a line cook’s shenanigans or the number of covers turned each night. It’s the happily tipsy regulars, the vivacious playlist, the backstory of the iconic dish. We're looking at the big picture — and the small ones: minute by minute, dollar by dollar, vodka shot by vodka shot. Welcome to One Night at Kachka.
On May 7, 2015 — a sunny evening when President Obama happened to be in town, leading to a citywide buzz surrounding presidential street closures and inevitable traffic — Kachka's owners Bonnie and Israel Morales invited Eater inside to document everything that goes on in their restaurant, Kachka.
Bonnie and her husband Israel swung open Kachka's doors in April of 2014, promising the city of Portland, Oregon, access to the kind of Eastern European hospitality that Bonnie's family enjoyed for generations in Belarus. Kachka's menu delivers on what they describe as the “Ruskie zakuski experience”: a parade of mostly cold appetizers, smoked and pickled all manner of ways, plus classics like pelmeni and vareniki dumplings, and other former-Soviet culinary icons, all washed down with plenty of vodka.
Garde/cold plate chef. Landed this job three days after moving to Portland
Lead prep cook. Moved to Portland “to be able to live as a cook”
Sous chef. Previously worked at Portland’s St. Jack restaurant
Dishwasher/prep. Grew up in Mexico, has lived in the U.S. for seven years
Lead prep cook Nick Jones arrives at 9 a.m. for the first of the restaurant's three prep shifts, followed closely by owners Bonnie and Israel, who come in after dropping off their son at school. The second prep shift arrives at 11, while the kitchen manager on duty — usually Olga or Neal — shows up at noon. Line cooks arrive at 1 p.m. to set up the kitchen for service, and the third and final prep shift shows up at 3, with servers' arrivals staggered from 3 to 5:30.
In the moments before opening, Israel checks the books: 50 covers are scheduled via OpenTable’s SeatMe service, with what he describes as "no big parties on the books.” He estimates they’ll do 120 covers during the night — as long as any Obama-related traffic doesn't keep potential diners at home.
The team filters through the restaurant's basement prep kitchen to eat a meal before the busy dinner service kicks off — "we always try to have something balanced and varied so people don’t get too bored," Israel says. Nick usually orchestrates each day's menu, with both the daytime prep cooks and incoming line cooks contributing to the meal.
After the ticket hits the kitchen, the team springs into motion: firing, searing, plating. Regardless of who cooked what, the last step for every plate of food happens at Bonnie’s expediting station, a small table just inside the dining room. She’s visible to everyone — diners and cooks — as she calls out orders, wrangles servers, and applies all final touches to dishes before they head into the dining room. Fifteen minutes after the ticket went in, the buckwheat blinis and radishes head out to that first two-top.
There’s already a big pile of dishes in the sink. “He’s 34 minutes late,” Israel says. He mutters something into his walkie talkie, which he and Bonnie use to communicate with the downstairs prep staff.
Bonnie garnishes the fish with dill fronds, and says “Nice work, lady” to Nina, who cooked it. Nina replies, “I remembered, from all the screaming last year.”
Bonnie explains the dish to the gathered waitstaff, while Israel articulates that it needs to be served French service style. He demonstrates the technique, involving two spoons held in one hand, then drops a spoon. “If you can’t hold two spoons, how are we going to be able to?” Aislinn laments.
“She was like Cher, Linda Rondstat, and Madonna rolled into one,” Israel says of Russian singer Alla Pugacheva, as the strains of one of her most famous songs begins to fill the restaurant. Kachka's soundtrack is just as heavily influenced by Eastern European culture as its menu. “70 percent of the music we play here is ripped from my father-in-law’s CDs,” says Israel.
The 4:02 two-top is ready for dessert — they've asked for the plombir ice cream sandwiches, which are served rolled in hazelnuts. When it prints out in the kitchen, the ticket says the table has a nut allergy. “I love finding out about nut allergies at dessert,” Bonnie sighs.
1. Plombir (ice cream rolled in wafers) 2. “Herring in a fur coat” (layered salad of herring, potato, beet, and egg) 3. Rabbit in a clay pot 4. Golubtsi (cabbage rolls) 5. Whole grilled trout 6. Lemon-chiffon cake 7. Pelmeni (dumplings stuffed with beef, pork, and veal) 8. Taranka (fish jerky) 9. Buckwheat blini and radishes 10. Oreshki (cookies) 11. Tvorog vareniki (dumplings stuffed with farmer’s cheese) 12. Sour cherry vareniki 13. Smoked trout salad 14. Bird’s milk cake (chocolate-glazed sponge cake)
1. Borscht 2. Khachapuri (dough stuffed with sulguni cheese) 3. Sweet cheese blinchiki 4. Meat and cheese board 5. Fish board, featuring cod liver spread, mackerel, and beet-cured cod 6. Bread plate 7. Brindza pashtet (cheese and paprika spread)
1. Beef tongue 2. Tabaka (pounded and pressed chicken) 3. Assorted pickles 4. Lamb kebab 5. Salo (cured fatback) 6. Baltic sprat buterbrodi 7. Pkhali (chard, walnut, and smoked mushrooms atop shaved beets)
At the dumpling station, Kachka’s stage Cole is watching prep cook Jon running dough through the vertical dough roller. He then hunches over the trays and pipes meat filling into each indentation. When he’s done, he lays a sheet of dough on top. Cole tries his hand for a while; Jon inspects Cole's work and completes the dumplings as Cole heads upstairs to chat with Olga about his background and his future. Cole, a Wisconsin native, is a student at Le Cordon Bleu and already has a job at a local brewery, but hopes to be hired on at Kachka.
