Brighton Club Combines Good Food, Lively Music

From the July 20, 1990 Spring Creek Sun

by Michael Horowitz Editor

    Each group of immigrants who have decided to make their homes in the United States has flocked to social clubs and nightclubs that help to ease their transition to American life.

    In Brooklyn, restaurants in Brighton Beach that double as nightclubs serve as gathering places for Jews who recently emigrated from the Soviet Union and for other New Yorkers wishing to get a taste of Soviet culture.

    One such restaurant and club is Primorski, which is located at 282 Brighton Beach Ave.  This gathering spot first opened its doors seven years ago, and serves a wide assortment of Russian delicacies during the lunch and dinner hours.

Many choices

    For lunch, one can get a choice of 1 of 10 dishes and soup for $3.99.  The price for a dinner with multiple courses and a bottle of wine or vodka and a nightclub show, which includes renditions of English and Russian songs, is $27 for Saturday night, $22 for Friday and Sunday and $20 per person other days of the week.

    Last Saturday night, a female singer, known only as Anna at Primorski, was the center of attraction at the jammed-packed restaurant.

    During the few breaks Anna took, Chayim Kovnater, the keyboard player, sang in Russian and English.

Spirited night

    Those at Primorski last Saturday, who divided more or less evenly between recent Soviet immigrants and others who had come for a good time, danced to polka beats and moved to the beats of the Israeli hora, in addition to moving to the beats of the conventional dances, both fast and slow.

    With seemingly boundless energy, the band played on for over 2 ½ hours, barely stopping to take a breather.

    Primorski, which offers generally good food to its customers, is definitely not a place to go for a quiet evening out with a decidedly Russian flavor.

Diverse menu

    The menu in the multiple-course dinner served before and during nightly evening shows includes blintzes, sturgeon, Russian-style gefilte fish, roast beef, chicken kiev, cabbage and grape leaves stuffed with lamb, and Russian patties and pelmeni dumplings, which are similar to perigee.

    Of course, food is a matter of individual taste, but I especially liked the lamb shish-kebab, the gefilte fish, a tomato dish with meat, the sturgeon and a number of salads, with a heavy dose of vinaigrette, that were served.  The dumplings and chicken kiev were extremely buttery, too greasy for my taste.

    The wine we had, a Canadali White Wine made in the Georgian state of the Soviet Union, was delightful, blending well with the varied foods that were served.  For my taste, however, the 80-proof Stolichnaya Vodka was the piece de resistance, highlighting the varied foods that were served to a generally appreciative clientele.

    Reservations at Primorski, like other popular Russian night spots in Brighton Beach, are strongly recommended.  The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week.

    Primorski accepts no credit cards.  For further information, contact the restaurant at 891-3111.