Club Karusel, the brainchild of Cherepovets restaurateur Ruslan Luzhinsky, today is the longest-running nightclub in Cherepovets. Almost every citizen of Cherepovka has had a rest at his establishment at least once, while Ruslan Luzhinsky himself loves to relax in nature.

Restaurateur Ruslan Luzhinsky: Life is a Carousel

Club Karusel, the brainchild of Cherepovets restaurateur Ruslan Luzhinsky, today is the longest-running nightclub in Cherepovets. Almost every citizen of Cherepovka has had a rest at his establishment at least once, while Ruslan Luzhinsky himself loves to relax in nature.

He told our correspondent about how the name Carousel came up, about the entrepreneurial spirit inherited from his ancestors, about the first car and mobile phone.

Zarechensk childhood

– In the cinema, there is such an image of the owner of a nightclub – a large man sits in a leather chair, a cigar in one hand, a glass of whiskey in the other. Do you spend the day and night in Karusel, or do you appear from time to time?
“When we first opened, we often had to spend the night here. It was necessary to control the night work of the club, and in the morning the builders came (at that time we were constantly completing something), and they also had to give tasks and control. What's the point of going home? Pokemar on the couch, and hello, a new day. Over the years, of course, it has become easier, but even now Karusel takes a lot of time, it is a very difficult business. There are many separate areas involved. On the one hand, it is a full-fledged restaurant with a bar, waiters and a kitchen. On the other hand, there are DJs, artists, security service and many other things that are not found in an ordinary restaurant. In general, a lot of things … In a word, every business should have a team where everyone does their own thing, but it is very difficult to find professional staff, and you have to do many things yourself. For this reason, there is little time left for the further development of the club, but we try not to stand still and move forward.

— Which district of Cherepovets do you consider native?
– District, of course. I spent my childhood and youth there, studied at school number 27. As a child, I was fond of everything that was possible, I went to many circles and sections from wood carving and burning to skiing and boxing. It was a good childhood, although difficult. I had to do a lot with my own hands, which subsequently helped me a lot. Now the child wants some kind of toy and pulls his parents to the store. And we made all the toys ourselves: we made air balloons, made crossbows and slingshots, and during the winter holidays we made swords from Christmas trees thrown out after the New Year. Fenced at construction sites – everything was built around, and the construction site was our favorite place to play. If you didn’t make yourself a toy, then you simply don’t play along with everyone, and this, to some extent, encouraged self-improvement.

– That is, a person with hands was appreciated before, and now, probably, they respect a person with money more?
– I would not talk about it so categorically. Personally, I treat money as an instrument to achieve some goals. I can do small. And I am very strange to hear from people: I do not have enough money for life. I understand that it may not be enough for business – you have planned a project, but there are no funds. But when there is not enough for life … I believe that everyone should spend as much as he earns. And it is firmly understood what can afford and what not.

– Did you have to fight in my youth?
– It happened, but infrequently. In childhood, I went to the Eaglet Pioneer camp every year. Children from all over the city came there. Since I was a sociable child, by a certain age I had friends and friends everywhere. And when the company came up to me in a foreign area and asked who I was and where, I could name several names of my friends and avoid conflict.

The first steps in business

– When were they a schoolboy, who dreamed of becoming?
– Then I did not know who I want to be, since then the profession of a businessman did not exist in principle. Of all the spheres, I was close to agriculture. This area is interesting to me now: at the moment I am working on a project in which the hotel business and farm will be combined. The main idea of ​​my project is the organization of ecotourism in the Vologda region.

– Why did you decide to go to business after graduation?
– My parents worked all their lives at the factory – dad worked even in retirement. And as a child, I realized that such a life is not for me and I want to live differently. I always wanted to create and see the fruits of my labor. Apparently, this was transmitted to me with the genes – my great -grandfather was a businessman, owned a large household in the Nikolsky district.

-Remember your first business project.
– In our youth, my friends and I went to St. Petersburg, stayed in Intourist hotels, exchanged currency from foreigners and bought things from them, and then brought it to Cherepovets and sold among friends. Parents worried, of course. Mom said that she shuddered when the phone was calling – she was afraid to hear that they had been arrested.

– Where did you spend the earned?
– First of all, I wanted to dress fashionable for clothes, but there was nothing in stores then. I had matured early and at the age of 16-17 I already wanted to buy an apartment. To begin with, I purchased household appliances: a Japanese TV, a video recorder, a German washing machine and a refrigerator –
Huge wealth at that time. But the trip to Poland violated my plans to buy an apartment.

– For what purpose did you go to Poland?
– I went there for business. I earned a very large amount there, 6 thousand dollars – in 1991 it was a lot of money. All this money was stolen from me. And I decided to stay in Poland, since there it was possible to earn them much faster.

– I didn't want to stay abroad?
— No, I never wanted to live abroad. I am a patriot and will never leave Russia. I have been to many countries, twice – on an internship in America, but I like our country. Of course, it's a shame that we live badly, and we need to take everything good in the West and introduce all that is good here.

— You recently opened a restaurant in Cherepovets with the Italian name Pinot Grigio. What is the main goal and what do you expect from it?
– The name is not entirely Italian, as Pinot Grigio is a grape variety native to France. In the menu of our restaurant, we have collected all the top dishes – European, Italian and Japanese cuisine. For me, this is a great experience, because I plan to continue to engage in this business and open new establishments. To do this, you need to constantly acquire new knowledge and put it into practice. I recently graduated from the RMA business school at the Moscow State University of Management with a degree in Management in the restaurant business and the club industry.

On and around the dance floor

– Did you like discos in your youth?
– Went with friends, not without it. In summer – in the park of culture and recreation, and in winter discos were held in the palaces of culture.

– Then, dancing to the flashes of old-fashioned light music, did you think about opening a modern club?
– No, you are. The club appeared in my life, one might say, by accident. Coincidence. We started with a trading pavilion near the Zarechensky market, and decided to open a summer cafe next to it. The business turned out to be more profitable than trade, and we organized another summer cafe on the river bank. The name Carousel came to mind because the cafe had wood trim and looked like vintage carousels. When it was completed and they were going to open it, a hurricane passed with a thunderstorm – almost everything was broken. But this did not stop us, and we rebuilt everything anew.

– How did you promote the cafe at the initial stage?
– At that time there was no such cafe in Cherepovets. People at that time, and this was at the beginning of the 2000s, were ready to absorb everything new and better, and somehow they themselves learned about all the new products. A week after we opened, people came to us, and the next year they began to gather a thousand people every evening. Crowds of people, cars, noise, din, mountains of garbage – movement, in a word. Of course, we wanted to make our cafe the best in the city – we began to gradually expand, then we decided to warm up and work in the winter.
The most difficult thing was to negotiate with officials – no one has ever provided us with any help, only spokes in the wheels. We have been working as a club for 12 years – we are the oldest institution of this kind in Cherepovets. How many competitors have already closed, but Karusel lives on. Probably because we have not frozen and have not stopped in development – we are constantly changing and rebuilding something.

– You have been watching a Russian person relaxing for a decade and a half. What do you understand about our national character?
– Our Russian man loves and knows how to rest. Usually young people visit clubs, and this is usually a small period in a big human life. And he probably should be, because for young people a night club is a platform for acquaintance and self -expression. A person walks a month, two, a year, and then you look, disappeared. Or he began to walk less often. Matured, new interests appeared. This is fine.

Dad for a hunch

– In what year did you have a mobile phone?
– Very late, I calmly treat all these technologies. In 2002, I probably purchased my first phone and connected the number that I still have.

– Remember your first car?
– Certainly. This is the sixth model of Lada, I bought it when I returned from Poland. She was such an unhappy car that even in the yard they constantly crashed into it. In the first year, she was all beaten. Then he bought a “Niva”, then the “eight”, for a long time drove in cars of the domestic automobile industry. After that, he moved to Toyott Land Cruiser. There is a difference, I will tell you. In general, I am a conservative person and I do not like changes, and I never do anything for window dressing. I love cars, but I hate repair – I change the wheel, and then I am annoying, I do not like to do my job. In recent years I have been traveling at the Jeep -Grand Cheroki.

– How do you relax?
– I try not to strain. When you do your favorite thing, it does not bother. If you ask about a hobby, then my hobby is my job. I am not a hunter, I have no bloodthirsty instinct. Once he was an avid fisherman, but now it is rare to get fishing. I love the forest, walk for mushrooms.

– Tell about your family.
– I am not married, but I have two daughters – 16 and 8 years old. Wonderful, smart girls, study well. Unfortunately, I still devote too little time to them. And when it is possible to spend this time together, the necessary words are not always located. Nobody teaches us to educate children, we do it from our own experience and by a hunch. I am sure that in childhood a person should have difficulties that he must overcome – this forms him as a person, and if everything is given just like that, a person will never learn to overcome life obstacles and go forward.

– The eldest daughter comes to the “carousel” as a visitor?
– This year, together with the class and parents, she celebrated graduation, but she is quite indifferent to this. Probably, as she told me, due to the fact that she grew up here, since childhood she watched all this and for her this is an uncertain fruit.

– It seems to you that the father is the owner of the Carousel club, she speaks with pride in her friends or hides it?
-I did not notice that my daughter was somehow embarrassed by my work. We are talking a lot with her, especially on long trips – real fundamental conversations about work, love and how to find your place in life are obtained. I advise her the right books and try to convey my life experience.