Makhachkala impressed me with its variety of trendy Western-style coffee shops scattered all round the city centre. Not many of them serve Turkish coffee, prepared in a cezve, though. A chain ironically called Ещё одна кофейня (‘another coffee shop’) does. I dropped into one of their branches after my visit to the Museum of Fine Arts located nearby. Interestingly, their Turkish coffee, brewed for me by a very young barista who seemed to be much more accustomed to making espresso-based drinks, was one of the best I’ve ever had.
I also liked the design of their takeaway coffee cups, featuring local landscapes painted in oil, and the way they incorporated the ‘exit’ sign above the door into a line from an iconic song by one of the most prominent Russian rock bands of my adolescence. When I pointed it out to the staff, one of the girls said ‘yeah, it’s from some old song’, to which I couldn’t help replying ‘old for you, modern for me’, to which she in turn replied that the band Kino is modern for her, much to my satisfaction.
PS While writing this I realised that in English they commonly say ‘Turkish coffee’ and use the word ‘cezve’ to refer to the pot in which it’s made, while in Russian the drink is often called ‘Eastern-style coffee’, but the pot is known as ‘turka’. Curious!
