WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — For 16 years, Rina Atroshenko has been the proud owner of Traktir, a cozy neighborhood restaurant for those craving authentic borscht with a side of nostalgia.
“It’s absolutely delicious, and it reminds me of my grandmother,” Atroshenko said.
West Hollywood has long been the hub of the Russian-speaking community in Los Angeles. Over the years, Traktir has become the go-to place for expats feeling a little homesick.
“They’re a close community,” Atroshenko said. “Everybody gets along.”
But in the few weeks Russian-themed businesses say they’re facing some of the most intense backlash in recent memory.
Atroshenko said she’s seen a 30% drop in reservations in her newer location in Tarzana. She’s also received angry phone calls from people asking about her Russian menu.
In one of those phone calls, the person asked one of her waitresses if she was Russian. When the employee told the caller she was “actually Ukrainian,” the person on the other end of the line said, “Sure you are,” and then hung up the phone.
And it’s not just in Los Angeles. Pushkin, a Russian restaurant in San Diego, said it has also been receiving threatening phone calls, and New York’s iconic Russian Tea Room has seen a decline in business in recent weeks, despite being owned by an American investment group.
Ironically, Atroshenko is a Ukrainian Jew who immigrated to the U.S. with her family in the 1970s.
“I’m concerned that maybe someone is scared and doesn’t want to come here for now, but we’re here to educate people,” she said.
The war in Ukraine has been tough on Atroshenko's customers too. Dmitrii Morgachev is a Russian native whose wife is Ukrainian. Even though he’s against the war, he said he couldn’t help but feel a little responsible.
“Right now, it’s kind of a shame to be Russian,” Morgachev said. “How weird.”
In the last few weeks, Atroshenko has put up Ukrainian flags at both her restaurants and is planning on changing her menus so that they read “Eastern European Cuisine” rather than “Russian.”
But there are two things, she said, that won’t ever change: her deep love for her customers and her signature borscht.
"I think people will come around and understand eventually."