Yesterday, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich released a statement announcing that all products produced in Russia have been removed from the County’s Alcohol Beverage Services (ABS) stores. Last night popular Bethesda bar and restaurant Caddies released a statement announcing that it will no longer purchase or serve Russian Vodka while also changing the name of three of its cocktails in support of Ukraine.
The names of three cocktails, Moscow Mule, White Russian, and Black Russian, have been changed to Kyiv Mule, White Ukrainian, and Black Ukrainian. Caddies also announced that it will be donating a portion of revenue from the sale of those cocktails to the Ukrainian Children’s Emergency Fund.
The decision by the county to remove Russian products has been met with mixed reviews, with some commenters on various local social media news pages supporting the removal of the products and others questioning the effectiveness of the decision and the Russophobia that may come with it.
On Thursday evening, Chef José Andrés tweeted that he was headed to Poland with his World Central Kitchen to see how they can help refugees after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Locally, José Andrés owns Spanish Diner at 7271 Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda as well as DC restaurants, China Chilcano, Jaleo, Oyamel, and Zaytinya.
The full statement posted on the Caddies Facebook Page last night:
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