Beating the Drum

Hidden away in a back lane behind Kyiv’s famous Khreshchatyk Boulevard is a strange little bar/restaurant named Baraban, the Ukrainian word for drum.  If you don’t know where it is, you would be hard pressed to find it. To get there, you turn right on Prorizna off Khreshchatyk, go through an iron gate in the first archway on your right, hang a left, go past a row of garbage bins and then down some stairs on the right side of the building at the end of the courtyard.  There are no signs to let you know that you have arrived at arguably Kyiv’s best-known bar, at least for most ex-pats. 

The place is a rabbit warren of small rooms, decorated in an eclectic style, with musical scores serving as wallpaper and antique musical instruments hanging on the walls as decoration.  On any given evening, you will find an interesting assortment of ex-pat foreign businessmen, scholars, diplomats, students and tourists.  Adding to the mix are a colourful and diverse collection of local intellectuals, revolutionaries, artists and musicians.  

The conversation is typically loud, boisterous and stimulating.  If you want to know what’s going on in Kyiv’s political, cultural or social scene, this is where you will find the latest inside news and gossip.  Local musicians can often also be found “jamming” here on certain evenings.

The bar has a fine selection of both foreign and local beers as well as other drinks. The food, an interesting mixture of Ukrainian, European and American cuisines, is good and decently priced.  One of my favourite treats, and a Baraban specialty, is chunks of apple deep fried in a crispy batter and served drizzled with honey.  The menu innocently describes this item as “Battered apples”!

The place has its regulars whom one is certain to encounter at their usual tables, regardless of the day of the week.  On a recent evening, I ran into Vasyl Boytchuk, one of the chief organizers and leaders of the PORA student movement.  At the same table was Roman Shwed, a retired architect from the U.S., who married a local academic and now hosts a weekly radio program on national radio.  Contributing to the trenchant and often witty conversation was Bill Pawlowski, an ex-Montrealer now working in Kyiv, who it seems knows everybody of interest in this city and can be counted on to know all the latest rumours and developments.  Crowded around the same table were a number of local Ukrainian students, journalists and media personalities.  Most regular visitors from the Ukrainian diaspora inevitably wind up at the Baraban to meet each other, catch up on events and mingle with the young movers and shakers of Ukrainian society and culture.

The owner of this establishment is as eclectic as the place itself.  Euan McDonald came to Kyiv in 1994 armed with a Masters degree in IT and Linguistics.  He started out as an English language teacher, then went into journalism, serving as an editor first with the Eastern Economist and then the Kyiv Post.  When not writing, Euan was often found playing guitar for a local, funky rock band by the name of Speeding Lisa.

Eventually he married a fellow journalist at the Post and in 2000 they decided to open up the Drum.  It was a success from the start, though it really came to the fore during last year’s Orange revolution, when it became a leading meeting place for local revolutionaries as well as the many foreign supporters who came to Kyiv to join in the protests. Since then, it has reached legendary status: No visit to Kyiv is complete without an evening at the Baraban. 

Pacing yourself, though, is imperative – in the sweep of interesting conversation and stimulating companionship, it is easy to lose track of one’s liquid consumption.  Hence, the bar’s apt motto: “Sometimes you beat the drum, and sometimes the drum beats you.”