


5

"One of the prettiest courtyards in Tbilisi—the old Writers’ House of Georgia—set the stage for Tekuna Gachechiladze’s lovely restaurant, where I sipped dry white Mtsvane on ice and ate veal tartare with Georgian truffles as cats padded through the shrubbery and a lone palm swayed. Over the clink of glasses, a friend pointed to the wall and recalled rumors of Beria’s torture dungeon just beyond it, a chilling counterpoint that captured the city’s rhythm: friendship and pleasure with horror close by." - Gary Shteyngart