Russian Tea Time celebrating 30th anniversary in Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS)-- Some things never get old, even after they've been around for a while.
So, it's no surprise that the beloved downtown restaurant Russian Tea Time is about to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
CBS 2's Jamaica Ponder sat down for some tea with the two sisters keeping it going.
Enesh Mantyyeva would stop by Russian Tea Time between business classes at DePaul. She found out the business was up for sale and her family gained interest.
They bought out a majority of the restaurant from the original owners.
"We remained partners for a year until we fully acquired the remaining shares," Enesh said.
Enesh and her sister Altyn have been running the tea parlor since. They group up in Central Asia in a country called Turkmenistan, formerly one of the 50 republics in the Soviet Union.
"[That contains] millions and millions of people's cultural food and cuisine," Altyn said.
"Each of them have different food, different cultures, different tradition," Enesh said.
It was a collective melting pot of traditions and Russian Tea Time puts them all in one place.
"We have customers coming from Romania, and saying, 'Oh, my grandmother used to make this' 'like Ukrainian grandmother used to make similar things that a Moldovan grandmother used to make," Enesh said.
"And you can see from their face, they like it, they smile. And that's what gives us joy," Altyn said.
They offer a diverse menu.
"If you open it, we have Ukrainian borscht, Georgian wines, Polish crosskeys dumplings. We cover more than just Russia," Enesh said.
They want to transport customers to another era.
"To a time in the past where everything was quiet and not as hectic as today," Enesh said.
And they want to preserve their history.
"So people are aware of a different region, of a different culture, of different tradition, and then they can keep an open mind," Enesh said. "It's this deep and colorful traditions that we do not want the political situation to erase. And that's what we represent."