Anton’s (У Антона)

There’s a bar located just around the corner from the school. We would never have found it had one of the local staff not taken us there one night. Before we left she told us, “You will be afraid. But don’t worry.” In order to reach Anton’s, first you walk through a wrought-iron gate into what appears to be a private courtyard. You walk nearly all the way to the back of the courtyard, then enter through a doorway on the right. There is no sign indicating that you’re entering a public establishment. At this point you go down a dimly lit staircase which leads to a long, winding, tunnel-like hallway. Eventually you emerge into a slightly dank basement containing a smoke-filled café/bar that simply reeks of atmosphere. This place is awesome. For some reason it’s decorated in a mountain climbing theme, but with periodic additions of masks, ranging from scary monsters to fencing masks. There’s both karaoke and a piano. Anton, the owner is a nice guy, and his mother is the chef. The fried mutton dish is scrumptious.

Last Tuesday night we decided to go to Anton’s for dinner, instead of doing as we so often do and popping across the street for shashlik at Nooruz. We expected to simply have some food, possibly a beer or two, then return home. Instead we met a group of Russian men, and one super hot half-Korean half-Kyrgyz man, who invited us to join them. We consumed bottle after bottle of vodka, and then they broke out the guitar. We didn’t get home until around 3am, thoroughly boozy and completely content. I have photos and videos of the madness… unfortunately, after it took over two hours for the first video to upload to youtube, I gave up on the others. I keep describing this new internet café as superfast, but I often forget that it’s superfast by Kyrgyz standards. Sigh. Enjoy the photos and the one measly video.