It's mid 1970s / early 1980s. My character, a British mercenary, has snuck into a smallish Soviet town in pursuit of someone (close enough to a border that a foreigner isn't completely suspect;right now in the southern Urals, though I can move it). He's gone to a rough bar to find a contact who may help him locate that someone.
What does he drink in the bar? I'm assuming vodka is more than safe, but - lemon? Pepper? Unflavored? Stolichnaya? Home brew?
Is it really a bar, with the traditional wooden railing a bar stools? Or would it be all tables away from the barkeep (so no conversations would happen with him)? Or standing room only?
And how would he order it? (He can know limited Russian; I'd need the transliteration and the English equivalent.)
This may be something like a ryumochnaya, although he's not in Leningrad and that might be too "polite" a place.
I've searched various vodkas, USSR, dive bar. Not much luck finding anything in the right time frame.
Thanks ~
