Post date: Oct 13, 2013 4:0:26 PM
Twin Stars restaurant opens in Moscow, where sets of twins wait tables and tend bar for enthralled patrons.
MOSCOW, RUSSIA (REUTERS) - Diners in the Russian capital Moscow might be seeing double while visiting a new restaurant, but there is nothing wrong with their eyes.
The wait staff and bartenders are all sets of twins at the Twin Stars restaurant in central Moscow.
On a recent Friday night, identically-dressed twin sisters in pairs took orders and served food while brothers Artyom and Roman tended bar.
Twin Stars bills itself as the only restaurant of its kind in Moscow and maybe anywhere, drawing staff and customers for their focus on twins.
The brothers, who share an interest in video production, said they like the work.
"We worked as barmen before this summer in a different establishment. It was an internship for us. We really liked that internship. That's why we decided this profession suits us and we came here to work," said Artyem.
Vika and Nika, who have lived in Moscow for years, but are originally fromTashkent, Uzbekistan, said she loved the restaurant's concept of identical-twin servers
"I really like it. It's a very friendly team. One pair (of twins) is already fun. When there are two, it's even more fun," said Nika.
Twin Stars owner Alexei Khodorkovsky said he was trying to find a way to attract diners in a competitive Moscow dining scene, where he could promise entrainment along with good food.
Khodorkovsky said he was inspired by a 1960s -era Soviet film in which a schoolgirl crosses into an alternate world in a hall of mirrors and finds her opposite twin.
"My favourite film from childhood 'Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors' also of course was there in my head. And that type of cellar, fairytale idea - the imaginative world of twins. We even have twins on the walls, star twins who host non-twin guests, something like that," he said.
Reuters talked to repeat diners, who liked being treated to affordable courses by attentive pairs.
The experience stays with customers, diner Elvira told Reuters.
"You know, I really like it because it's unusual and at the same time memorable. When you come to a place like this, leaving here you already won't forget it because it differs in a big way from other places," Elvira said.
Khodorkovsky said finding twins with food service experience has been tough, but the pairs seem to be working out the kinks together.