Inside one of Warsaw’s newest restaurants, a Belarusian national manages operations, a Ukrainian woman waits tables, while the kitchen is run by a Georgian cook and a Chechen Russian woman.
The restaurant, known as Budzma, is the creation of a Belarusian family who ran successful businesses in their home town of Homel in eastern Belarus until 2020 but were squeezed out amid widespread political repressions. They have since been forced to start again from scratch in their adopted city of Warsaw.
In Homel, Vasil Prakofyeu and his wife, Volha, ran two restaurants, also called Budzma (a word that is a common toast in Belarusian), and several fabric stores. As the couple navigated their businesses through the pandemic in 2020, anti-government protests erupted across Belarus in the wake of disputed presidential elections that summer.
Volha provided red and white fabric from her fabric stores -- the colors of a historical Belarusian flag that is now used as an anti-government symbol -- and Vasil handed out food to the protesters.
“He fed people for free,” Volha recalls.
Vasil’s donations of food were soon noticed by the authorities in Homel, while Volha received a government order to remove red and white fabric from sale.
“We were a private store; the state has never helped us,” Volha recalls of the diktat. “I was furious.”
In October of 2020, Vasil and Volha closed their restaurants and shops as part of a nationwide strike in protest at the disputed election results.
Soon afterwards, Volha says, various bureaucrats came knocking to inspect their businesses.
“All the various authorities were lining up. The health department, the standardization authority, fire safety people…,” she remembers.
After being fined for “violations” such as dirty dishes in the sink of a restaurant, and a label from a roll of fabric that had fallen to the floor, Vasil was summoned to the KGB.
Amid hints that Vasil would end up in prison, the couple realized they had few options left but to leave the country. First they needed to sell some of their possessions in order to pay staff that were owed back pay from the turbulent period.
“I can’t talk about it now without crying,” Volha admits.
On November 12, 2020, the couple arrived in Ukraine, before traveling onward to Poland soon afterward. The pair had little money remaining and no housing or knowledge of the Polish language.
Initially, the pair picked up jobs -- Vasil worked as a cook, while Volha landed a job at the immigration service -- but eventually they decided to open their own restaurant. They tracked down the Georgian chef who had worked for them in Homel.
“He’s an excellent cook. Our restaurants served exclusively Belarusian cuisine, which he knows well, but he suggested opening a Georgian eatery," Volha says, "Georgian food is popular in Warsaw, but there are really too many such restaurants here.”
The reunited team opened first as a Georgian restaurant before quickly rebranding to serve Belarusian food -- a cuisine that comes with its own challenges.
One of the most famous Belarusian dishes is draniki -- fried potato pancakes flavored with onion and served hot with sour cream.
"Believe me, draniki are a very expensive food to produce, especially in a good restaurant,” Volha says. “After frying one serving, the oil in the pan needs to be changed. If one order follows another one immediately, then you can still fry a second time, but only if there is no break.”
Somewhat paradoxically, the Belarusian says, “to make good, low-fat draniki, there needs to be a lot of oil in the pan.”
Some varieties of Belarusian potatoes are high enough in starch not to need any binding agents such as flour or eggs to shape into pancakes, and finding such vegetables in Poland has been a challenge.
"In Belarus, I knew every variety, but in Poland finding the right potatoes has been hard; not all make good draniki," Volha says. "But I found one type that works."
Another challenge has been finding the right cookware for Belarusian dishes.
“I really miss certain pots that aren’t available in Poland. They are cast iron on the outside and enamel on the inside. In Belarus, a plant in Slutsk makes them.”
But the pair have encountered some upsides to operating outside their home country.
"We were very impressed that officials here are approachable," Volha says. "We recently had a problem when we received a license to sell alcohol but missed the deadline for reporting it. We got a polite letter addressed to my husband that said, 'Mr. Vasil, look carefully at the documents, you made a mistake, we can help you. If you correct things, the fine will be reduced.'"
In comparison to Belarus under authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, “here they don't want to punish you right away; they don't look at you as an enemy. They help and give you advice,” Volha says.
There are hopes the business will soon be used to host various cultural activities.
“You don’t need to order anything, you don’t need to pay, just come!” Volha says. “We have a small piece of Belarus here.”
Back home in Belarus, the businesses formerly owned by the pair, which were once famous Homel establishments, operate under different names with different owners, or have been shut down.
“But no one will take ‘Budzma’ away from us. We will remain here, in Poland, as Belarusians," Volha says, adding, “Budzma is our patented name.”
