Kudyablishnaya was an attempt to build a fast-food outlet on the site of a small dumpling shop on Pokrovka. It ended with the manager, Dmitry Kuzin, fleeing, and the project's creditors extralegally hauling off the kitchen equipment.

The cafe operated from 2015 to January 2017. Director — Dmitry Kuzin; the author and trademark owner of "Kudyablishnaya" is Kirill Gotovtsev.

Dmitry Kuzin

He began his career with mass-following on Facebook and cultivating what might pass for a more viable look from the standpoint of a typical Russian money-holder. His stated career goal was to become mayor of the city of Kirov. In partnership with Serikov, he took part in a program to develop the historic district of "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona", in the course of which he became manager of the "Kofehostel" hostel, opened in a historic building. It was already during his work on Kofehostel that Dmitry's strengths and weaknesses became sharply apparent:

Strengths of Kuzin-style management

  • An ability to stick to the exact format of "trendy" social-media discussion, combined with an active stream of posts and a bold personal stance, that delivered successful networking.
  • A socio-economic cosplay of the "unsinkable cruiser" role model.
  • Generating intriguing ideas at the intersection of culture and modern mass communication.

Weaknesses of Kuzin-style management

  • A lack of feel for customer behavior (such as trying to sell expensive coffee to hostel guests who pinched every last kopeck).
  • Indiscriminate business connections (an attempt to broker between the "cultural public" and officials prone to shady real-estate schemes), which dragged his reputation down.
  • Exceptionally weak financial planning, leading to blunders such as scrapping the menu and raising prices right after a new print run of menus arrived.

The dumpling shop on Pokrovka

For decades an old dumpling shop had stood there, earning a reputation as a rough, no-frills and relatively cheap place. The logical next step, provided the rent was reasonable, was to reopen it under a refreshed concept. One of the first mistakes was the odd brand name "Kudyablishnaya". The main flow of visitors passing along Bolshaya Pokrovka consists of residents of the factory districts riding the metro into the Historic Center to get away from their everyday routine — and a name so easily mistaken for a leery come-on from confused down-and-out youths from the outskirts provoked the puzzlement you could read on the faces of passers-by staring at the sign.

Address

22 Bolshaya Pokrovskaya St.

Media coverage

The Kudyablishnaya affair was covered in the national press:

Interesting to note

Viral video. Dmitry Kuzin reveals the technology of spraying boiling water into freezing air. Bolshaya Pokrovka, filmed from the entrance to "Kudyablishnaya".

See also