On Saturday night, 15 of us descended on one of the coolest restaurants I’ve ever been to, Dona Irene, in Teresópolis. This “restaurant” is really a very large house that serves traditional Russian food and homemade vodka. B and I went years ago on an evening that featured a chamber music concert before dinner and loved it. It’s run by a family with Russian roots that still live on the premises. When we arrived at around 21:00, a little girl was outside playing with her dog.
Normally, one selects a main dish which is served after multiple waves of courses consisting of soup and all all kinds of salads and side dishes, including caviar. B thought it would be fun to take the entire adult crew and she was right -- it was one of the best dinners out I’ve ever had.
The meal starts with everyone being served a small glass of their homemade vodka, which brought to the table in a bottle frozen inside a block of ice served in a small pale. It is very smooth and not distilled to the point that it tastes like rubbing alcohol. 
I haven’t been to Russia but have read traditional vodka there retains some of the taste of whatever it is made from. That seems to be the case with Nazdaróvia, the house label.
It of course didn’t take long for us to start consuming this stuff in large quantities.
More on the food in another post…
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