Guga Kotetishvili: Tbilisi’s Wizard of Comfort
Tbilisi |Tbilisi -- In 2001, new to Tbilisi, we asked our friend Anna where the hip went to sip. Surely, there has to be a bar or cafe where the local Bohemians go to pose. “No,” she replied. “Our artists have no money for bars. They just hang out in each other’s homes.” Read more
Tbilisi -- There was a large table made from a huge buzzsaw blade, covered in Russian and Western photo magazines. A greasy boombox played jazz, blues and classic rock cassettes. Behind the high wooden counter was a somber, dark-haired young woman who served semi-cold Argo beer for 3 lari a bottle and a simple lunch for a few lari more. We had found our watering hole.
Apollo had been designed by local artist Guga Kotetishvili, a name we wouldn’t know until 2004, when he helped two young Apollo regulars auspiciously launch an entrepreneurial gastro-dominion with the opening of Cafe Kala on Erekle II Street, a narrow, 100-meter lane in Old Town. Back then, there was nothing else on the street. Read more
Apollo had been designed by local artist Guga Kotetishvili, a name we wouldn’t know until 2004, when he helped two young Apollo regulars auspiciously launch an entrepreneurial gastro-dominion with the opening of Cafe Kala on Erekle II Street, a narrow, 100-meter lane in Old Town. Back then, there was nothing else on the street. Read more
