RIGA - Dada, the new restaurant at the very new Galerija Centers, that monstrous mall some genius decided to build in Riga's Old Town, plays on its name a little too happily.
One chair is shaped like a cushioned stool, another string of chairs is more like a connected love seat. There's a pillow with an imprint of the Mona Lisa. There's a glass and metal shelf space wriggling from side to side. An upside down bicycle wheel. Three large Art Deco jars placed on a shelf above the bar.
Get it. Dada. As in "Dadaist."
It's been said that modern art's greatest influence could be found in the odd decorations that line so many of America's shopping malls. Whether or not that's true, there is certainly a fun watered-down superficial genius to Dada.
When you pay for a coffee at Starbucks 's one chain that, alas, hasn't come to Riga yet; Saudi Arabia has one, why not Latvia? 's you pay not for the coffee, which is decent enough, but for the atmosphere. You pay for Starbucks' easygoing maroons and greens that make up the interior and that charming woman in the logo.
Likewise, with Dada. The food isn't bad, but you are really paying for a smart semi-go at luxury and style. That it should enjoy a place at Galerija Centrs, well outside the budget of most Latvians doesn't seem to affect business. When I showed up there at 3 p.m. on a Sunday, it was full.
So, was the food worth it? Well, I had what everyone else had, or sort of…For 4 lats (5.79 euros), you can fill up a bowl with an assortment of meats and vegetables (the offer includes beef, chicken, fish, pork, small corns, zucchini slices, noodles), request one of seven sauces (barbecue, fish, etc…) and let the cooks take care of the rest. It's what some call a Mongolian-style grill, apparently.
Does the Mongolian-style of grilling have anything to do with Dadaism? Well, the dictionary definition of "dada" seems to have something to do with artists who "exploited accidental and incongruous effects in their work" to "programmatically challenge" the status quo.
Mongolian grilling has its rootes in centuries past when Mongolian soldiers would place whatever meats or ingredients they were interested in eating onto their spears and roast them together over a fire.
So, I guess you could stretch it and claim that maybe you could put ingredients together that don't normally fit to create a strange concoction that may challenge the existing notions of cooking…
That sounds good…
It was a good meal. If I made a little more money, it would probably be worth it for me to eat that meal two or even three times a week. In the meantime, I have an idea for a restaurant. It would be called Ashcan, based on the Ashcan school of painting from 100 years ago that centered on slum life. Everyone would eat out of cans and the food would be awful, and the temperature would be turned down so that on cold winter days, customers could experience the aesthetic of freezing one's pathetic ass off.
Wait, that would be way too tasteless. But the way things are going in Riga, we may very well get a very nice luxurious rococo restaurant that would cost 200 euros just to sit down.
Dada
Galerija "Centrs"
Kaleju iela 30
Open 10 a.m. 's 12 a.m.
everyday
Tel: 710 4433
