In Narva in the nineties, a bar sometimes began not with a sign, but with a staircase down. “Nine,” according to Evgenia’s recollections, was located on Suur tänav in the basement of the hostel: the entrance was from the end, on the corner, through the door after a short descent. The exact house number has not yet been established. This is not a memory defect, but the honest status of the archive.
There was a rocking chair in the room before the bar. Then came beer, billiards, bars on the windows and two groups who met almost exclusively at the counter. In one room there was a billiard table, along the walls there was an audience of its own. In the second there are heavy wooden tables, bare stone, lamps and conversations without unnecessary migration.
Theater begins with a coat rack, and “Nine” began with bars.
Evgenia first came there around 1997, when the place had already become mythical. For the evening she got 15-20 crowns: beer, from memory, cost two or three. On a particularly good day, the economy allowed for five mugs and a feeling that adult life was finally in sync.
School riot delivered to your home
A group of girls from the eleventh grade came there for a small but convincing rebellion: sit at the bar, drink beer and consider themselves adults. One day the door opened and Evgenia’s mother entered the room - straight from the house opposite, wearing a raincoat over her nightgown and rubber boots.
She walked through both halls, past people who habitually looked at everyone who entered, and in an icy voice invited her daughter to go home. The scene did not require physical accompaniment. A voice and a distance of two steps were enough for her.
During the day, “Nine” looked different: light came in through the basement windows, and the interior became tired, and the people became taciturn. There is no memory of the last evening. It’s just that after 1998 or 1999 the next campaign didn’t work out one day. The bar disappeared without the end credits.
Address, legal name, years of opening and closing, owners and employees require separate verification. But the very structure of the place is already visible: a basement, two parties, beer for crowns and a city in which even returning home could work as teleportation.