Business is ducky for Canadian
Halifax businessman set to relaunch tamer version of notorious Russian bar
MOSCOW – The Hungry Duck, once the bawdiest, most infamous bar in Russia, is to reopen this summer as a tamer version of itself.
Doug Steele, the Canadian entrepreneur who owned and ran the old Duck, was approached recently by several Russian businessmen to see if he were interested in a 25-per-cent share in a new Duck, where he would be the manager.
The establishment is to trade under the Duck name, which Steele still owns. But it is to be much bigger and more upmarket than the earlier version.
The original Duck was notorious as a gathering place in the late-1990s for Russian low-lifes and expatriates eager to witness or participate in nightly dramas created when many young female customers would strip for the price of a beer, and impromptu sex on the bar, the tables, the seats and the floor was commonplace.
“I was reluctant to consider the offer at first because I don’t want to be nostalgic and because I’ve moved on to other things,” but the opportunity was too good to pass up, the 62-year-old Nova Scotian said over burgers at the Beverly Hills Diner, one of six trendy restaurants and bars he now manages in the centre of Moscow.
One of the few things that the new Duck will have in common with its namesake is that part of it is to be given over to Steele’s obsession with hockey. A French architect who usually works with billionaire oligarchs is designing a miniature rink. It will have Plexiglas, an electronic scoreboard and paintings recalling the epochal 1972 hockey series between Canada and the Soviet Union.
Not too long after arriving from Halifax 18 years ago, where he had managed the distribution centre for Atlantic Canada for Oshawa Foods, Steele abruptly walked away from his first Russian business venture – the Moosehead Bar – after his Chechen “partners” threatened to “kidnap or whack” him and his young Russian family.
The “krysha” or “roof ” that provided protection for the old Hungry Duck was the FSB (secret police). But that was not enough to save it after a group of Russian parliamentarians witnessed a Nigerian male stripper dancing to the Soviet anthem with a local woman there. During what had only been an 18-month run, the Duck, which was only 500 metres from the Kremlin, had become synonymous with the wild capitalism and criminality that gripped the Russian capital during the Yeltsin years. The bar was even shot up one night by a disgruntled cop.
“I paid more than $1 million in bribes to keep the Duck going but that was not an accurate barometer for bribes because it was such an isolated, magical experience,” Steele said with his trademark impish grin.
“After we were the subject of a debate in the Duma (Parliament) and were featured on several Russian news shows, things became difficult for us. But we really closed the Duck because it had degenerated into a s—hole.
“The entire Yeltsin period was a sad mess. But bribes ended for us the day Putin took power. The government now actually promotes and encourages small businesses.”
During its heyday, ambassadors and Wall St. superstars were among the Duck’s regulars. It became such a “must see” for visitors, that when then-prime minister Jean Chrétien called on Boris Yeltsin, members of his entourage from Ottawa dropped by the Duck during one particularly Bacchanalian evening.
“Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t mention the Duck to me,” Steele said.
“Some are people who actually went to the Duck. Others are wannabes who never went but now pretend that they did.
“It took a bit out of me mentally and financially, but it was the biggest business card you could ever have. The high point was meeting lots of great people. A lot of my friends from then are my friends today.”
Since the original Duck closed, Steele had a few restaurants fail in Moscow after he got “stiffed” by two contractors. But he is once again in the black. Although his 16-year-old Russian-born daughter is to attend Halifax’s Dalhousie University this fall, nothing has shaken Steele’s exuberant faith in Moscow as a place to do business and pursue a uniquely interesting life.
“When I arrived here in 1994, you could not find s—t from s—t and today there is really nothing that you can’t do here,” he said. “I have clearly made some mistakes. But life has been good to me in Russia.”