Rail Dianov, Wolves-Yolki

The hero of our new interview is Rail Dianov, bar manager of the Volki-Yolki grill bar. Rail told us about important milestones in the profession, working with alcohol and drinking culture.

Tell us a little about yourself: how did you get into this profession?

It all started quite banally - with a part-time job in a bar about 15 years ago, when I was studying at the institute. Having already received my education and worked for some time, I roughly understood the prospects for working in my profession and the prospects for working in a bar. At that moment I met Sergei Chesnokov, who had made great progress in this industry as far as management was concerned, and he had already fundamentally explained to me what catering was, what a bar in catering was, and I was very interested in this. It became interesting because at that time the bar industry, bar culture was just emerging, and I really wanted to participate in it. Gradually I reached a managerial position, and when I had the opportunity to influence cards, serving, and working with guests, I began to realize my thoughts regarding drinking culture and proper work with drinks.

By “correct” I, first of all, mean drinking culture. It didn’t exist in Russia then, and introducing it is a rather complicated process: several generations must literally change for people to learn to drink alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks; in fact, this is the same gastronomy that is in the kitchen. But the kitchen is well developed, but the bar, unfortunately, is not. And in fact, this is very bad, because the bar works with alcohol, and alcohol is a rather dangerous and harmful thing if used incorrectly.

When I decided that I would stay in a bar, in public catering, then, of course, I understood that in order to advance in this and develop, I needed to obtain a certain basis of knowledge, primarily theoretical. Unfortunately, in Russia there was no special institution that would allow chefs to receive an education. To become a chef, you need to study at a technical school for 4-5 years: a chef studies biology, chemistry and a fairly large number of related subjects, but this was not the case with the bar, and all the guys who have achieved a lot are self-taught. But working with alcohol requires a lot of theoretical knowledge, and while working at the same time, I studied specialized literature for about two years, including medical journals - I read how alcohol affects cells, and this allowed me to study the issue quite meticulously, which later helped a lot.

How did you start working at Wolves-Yolki?

To put it simply, I was invited to restore order. The establishment had already been open for 2 years, during which time many bar managers had changed, and there was no order in either the numbers or the drinks. And now I’ve been here for 1.5 years.

Tell us more about the “Wolves-Yolki” concept.

This is a project from the owners of the Mumiy Troll bar - they decided to make a good quality craft beer bar. Moreover, craft beer is in everything - in the interior, in the selection of non-trivial alcohol, in the non-trivial cuisine. We work with the Volkovskaya brewery, they brew varieties especially for us and, based on feedback from our guests, decide whether to release this product to the masses or not. So they brew all the most experimental varieties in small batches of 100-200 liters for us. As part of the kitchen, we implemented a story about game - these are wild boars, elk, ducks, everything is shot on special farms, the emphasis is on meat.

Which dish should you choose to fully experience the spirit of the establishment?

I recommend the pulled boar burger and, perhaps, the smoked duck.

How do you work with a cocktail menu, what do you focus on?

We have a small cocktail menu, like I said, a good selection of spirits, and when you put it all together, it's a pretty well-rounded menu. Again, the concept is important, and if we use a smokehouse, then we repeat the smoked history in some drinks - this makes the menu unified and at the same time multifaceted.

When I first arrived, there were only simple mixed drinks on the menu, and naturally I wanted to add something interesting, something tasty. From previous experience, I already have a developed scheme for how to offer guests the right drinks, and here I implemented this scheme, and everything worked perfectly. Now the main part of the cocktail menu is the author's story; there is, of course, beer - this is an integral part of any bar, as is pure alcohol. We make a lot of infusions and tinctures - sometimes it takes six months to perfect a recipe to come to the ideal.

And guests, trying something new and tasty, always come back. This is what happened with the Berezutskys’ Wine&Crab project - the concept implied wine and crabs, and the bar opened as an addition, but when making the map, we tried to meet the project’s standards, and guests came for cocktails after six months of the establishment’s operation. And of course it’s cool to see such a result of your work.

What achievements in your profession are you proud of?

I can't say that I'm a cool mixologist. What toWhen it comes to making cocktails, there are a lot of guys who make better cocktails than me. My main advantage, what I can boast about, and why I am invited from establishment to establishment, is management, this is the correct organization of work. I manage to maintain a balance between gastronomy and commerce - everything that concerns numbers, management, optimization, bringing the establishment to maximum efficiency - this is for me. I can put things in order, do an audit and give recommendations for correcting errors.

So you are more involved in management?

Not really. This is what I do best. As for drinks, I am a supporter of the concept “everything has its place and time.” We do not have the task of making a bar with trendy drinks in the sense of mixology, such as Korobok. 90% of guests simply will not understand these drinks - they will be interesting for me and for the guys who are very familiar with the industry. You know, there are couture things, but no one wears them, but there are fashionable things that are sold en masse, this is perhaps the most understandable comparison. So we make a product that will be interesting and tasty.

For me, the most important thing is that it tastes good. And if it tastes good, I think the bulk of the work is done. You can, of course, play around with the presentation, but if it’s not tasty, they won’t drink the drinks.

What about trends in general – do you follow them?

Good question. There are things that still need to be prepared. It all depends on the format of the establishment and what target audience it is aimed at. If we are talking about guests in Moscow, then of course there should be such things as an Aperol spritz. They may not necessarily be presented on the menu, but there should be an opportunity to cook them. Of course, we cannot include all the classics, but there is no need for this, but to prepare things that are currently popular - why not? In any case, 99% of establishments that operate are commercial, and it is simply wrong to not take this into account. Whoever hires you will ultimately still evaluate you based on the numbers you give at the end, and if the number suits them, then you are a good employee. And if not, then no matter what super trendy and fancy drinks and servings you make, if it doesn’t make money, why do they need you?

Can a guest's opinion influence your decision about a menu item or recipe change?

Necessarily. Regular guests appear, or the request to add a product is made several times - it doesn’t cost any special effort. From the latter, we added a few more classic cocktails and persuaded the Volkovskaya brewery to finally brew a classic lager, because people wanted it.

Do you make beer cocktails?

No, but we use beer to prepare some ingredients, for example, we make a sweet sauce from dark porter and use it in cocktails, we make bitters from hops... But we do not use beer as a separate ingredient.

Beer is a completely independent product, produced in a certain way from certain raw materials, and mixing it, for example, with liqueur based on other raw materials is fraught with poor health. Why can you drink whiskey with beer? Because this is in fact one product - they took beer, distilled it and got whiskey. In the last few years, craft beer has become popular - anyone can brew it however they want. Nowadays there is such a large selection of craft beer that there is simply no need to mix it into cocktails.

What equipment do you use most often in the kitchen?

If necessary, we use sous vide, and much more. But I mainly make infusions using the maceration method. The topic of producing essences using distillates is interesting; this is even closer to perfumery. We take a lot from the kitchen - many years ago it was very much ahead of the bar, but now the bar has caught up. In fact, the bar and the kitchen are one and the same, it’s just that the bar uses its own ingredients, and the kitchen uses its own, a lot of them are the same, only the format differs.

How do you approach choosing dishes?

It all depends on the drink I want to serve and the format of the establishment. Let’s say that the dishes from “Mumiy Troll” are not suitable for “Wolf-Yolka” - it will be ugly. Dishes are important because most people choose with their eyes. For example, red cocktails are ordered much more often because they seem to have a richer flavor.

Do you recommend flavor combinations for drinks and dishes to guests?

Certainly. The story with wine is clear, but it’s the same with cocktails - if a cocktail is well balanced, it can be competently recommended for any dish - to emphasize, to set off or to serve between courses.

By the way, at the end of March we will have a show at Mumiy Troll.The group “Mumiy Troll” is singing, and for this event a Japanese chef will come to us with his set, for which we will prepare drinks.

What is the difference between the approach to serving drinks for meat and fish?

There are foods that have a very delicate taste, and you shouldn’t serve them with strong drinks like Negroni - your receptors will become clogged and you won’t feel any taste. The meat has a more pronounced flavor, and strongies go great with it. This is why cigars go well with pure strong drinks: because of the smoke, the drink does not seem bitter or alcoholic, you feel more aromatics. For the same reason, with age, people begin to like strong drinks more: the receptors die off, and what a person feels at 20 and at 50 years old is a completely different taste. Dilution with pure water has approximately the same effect - the more water, the less alcohol is felt and the more aroma is felt - this works for both strong drinks and vintage wines. But ice is not suitable here: the aromatics are lost due to cooling.

How do you see your visitor?

These are people who want to eat delicious food. Not super original, maybe not super trendy – just delicious. Of course, we don’t forget about appearance and presentation. For example, for one of the cocktails we came up with a presentation in the form of “Chypre” - a Soviet cucumber cologne - practically the only one at that time. It contained large amounts of alcohol and some people drank it. We decided to play on this story, made a bottle, a label, and the cocktail itself - something like a basil mix. Guests over 35 are very happy with this presentation because they know the history well.

What is the most challenging part of your job?

This is to be able to correctly negotiate conditions with the people who hire you, so that you can then be able to fully fulfill them. Let me explain: with experience, I have come to the conclusion that you always need to negotiate on the shore. But how can you evaluate the work? Like or not is a very flexible concept: you can get to the bottom of anything. For myself, I have come to the conclusion that numbers are the most objective. That is, you agree on certain numbers, and no matter what they say about you, what you do, if commercial conditions are met, then you are doing a good job. If you agreed in this way, then you have a strong argument about the quality of your work.

What's the most enjoyable thing about work?

This is, perhaps, movement, crazy rhythm and multitasking squared away. New tasks, new knowledge, implementation of ideas, new acquaintances. Although sometimes I want to spend time completely alone, I like everything, but I definitely wouldn’t be able to sit sorting out papers in the office.

What do you need to do to become a professional in your field?

Studying and studying again is very important. We need to start with the basics, from the very beginning. I teach my kids this way: you need to read exactly up to the first word that you don’t understand. You stop, look for its meaning, understand and continue. At moments it seems that this is simply impossible, but I’m building my knowledge base, you need to be meticulous.