From Belarus with love: how we opened the first bar. Part 2

In the first part,  I talked about how we were looking for premises for a bar. And they found two at once, at a distance of 275 km from each other, in Minsk and Grodno. The disadvantages of a complex layout had to be compensated for by attractive rental conditions.





How the path from the development of the concept to the opening of the establishment actually developed, read in this part.





What does this material do on Habré?

After spending thousands of hours in the office routine, you involuntarily wonder if you can apply your experience and knowledge to create a business in the real sector.





What are thousands of hours of office work, hundreds of completed projects and dozens of books about effective management that you have read? Is it possible to combine office work and entrepreneurship without radical change?





In a series of articles, I will share my answers to these questions using the example of opening your own bars. Draw your own conclusions.





The concept of the institution

The proximity to the foreign intelligence apparatus gave us the idea to open a secret bar. But not in the usual prohibition-era format. Then, bypassing the restrictions, there appeared places hidden in the depths of small streets, in courtyards, "for their own."





And in a more cinematic concept of a secret place. Public, but with secrets known only to the initiated. Places attractive for casual visitors and special for regular guests.





Given its location in the tourist center of the city, the idea of ​​hiding in plain sight seemed intriguing. Inspired by numerous conspiracy prose, we began work on the details.





Name

Keeping in mind the image of an agent with a glass of cocktail in hand, we chose the name that seemed to us like a funny play on words -  Smoking .





The very word "tuxedo", which in Russian came to mean a strict black suit, originally meant a special jacket for smoking. It was worn by English aristocrats, entering special smoking rooms so that the smell of tobacco would not eat into their clothes.





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It is not known for certain what exactly influenced the judge's decision: our demonstration of determination, dry legal argumentation, or all in the aggregate. But, in the end, we were issued a minimum fine for squatter, rejecting the demands of officials.





Discovery instead of conclusion

We have opened. And it turned out that this is not the end at all, but only the beginning of the story.





In less than two years, a pandemic will break out, which will close borders and people to self-isolation. Following, mass, months-long protests will sweep across Belarus.





But then we did not know all this and were filled with dreams of the imminent completion of work in Minsk.








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