Kurgan Patrol bloggers try every shawarma spot, face threats

How do you find out where to get a tasty shawarma wrap in Kurgan? There are few options: either go to every spot in order, try them and make a mental map, or heed the impressions of friends and acquaintances while also reading reviews on aggregators. But there is an easier way—watch a video by the bloggers from «Kurgan Patrol». For several years now, Stanislav Bukhtoyarov and Sergei Tarkov have been going to Kurgan«s establishments, trying their food and filming their reviews. Moreover, recently the creators have been drawn to social issues—they make videos about city transport problems and interview residents.

45.RU spoke with the creators of the «Kurgan Patrol» project about the Trans-Ural food service industry, its strengths and weaknesses, conflict-prone establishment owners, earnings, and future plans.

«The city has tasty shawarma, and we like filming»

The «Kurgan Patrol» project was created almost 3 years ago by Stanislav Bukhtoyarov and Sergei. The guys were inspired by similar popular shows (like «Shaverma Patrol» by bloggers Yuri Khovansky and Kuzma), where young people try street food on video and rate it.

— And since we have tasty shawarma in the city and we liked filming, we decided to combine business with pleasure, — say Sergei and Stanislav.

Stanislav Bukhtoyarov was the ideological inspiration for the «Kurgan Patrol» project, as well as the scriptwriter and cameraman. Sergei Tarkov took on the role of actor and main taster. They are both 27 years old and from Kurgan Oblast. Stanislav studied at a medical college to become a nurse, then got a degree in psychology. The blogger describes himself as a multifaceted and creative person, making videos thanks to extensive viewing experience and a wide circle of communication.

Sergei Tarkov met and became friends with Stas in school in the village of Polovinnoye back in first grade. He has incomplete higher education (studied in the geography department at Kurgan State University) and works as an assistant train driver. The guys moved to Kurgan in 2014 and 2016, respectively.

— We«re interested in everything. And what»s interesting, we do. Today it«s journalism about city problems, tomorrow a food review, roughly speaking. Stanislav took a leadership position and started pushing ideas, that we should try more things, develop in certain ways. I supported him because I wanted that too. And that»s it, we started trying what interests us. We hardly do any reviews now, with rare exceptions. When we want to eat and film something, we open «GIS» (2GIS), look for places with good reviews. We go there and ask: «Can we film here?» If they agree, then later you see the video in our group, — say the project«s authors.

The «Kurgan Patrol» project, according to its authors, has already become more than a hobby. It includes a group of 6 thousand people on VKontakte and an account with 12 thousand subscribers on TikTok. On this social network, for example, the Kurgan residents« videos get over 100,000 views monthly.

— Our main platform is TikTok. On VK, the audience is older, more serious, they perceive content more straightforwardly, they don«t see punchlines, hidden meanings, sometimes they take content very literally. On TikTok there»s the youth, they are more developed. It«s better, more comfortable for us there. We get good numbers, — say Stanislav and Sergei, — because our target audience is Kurgan residents, meaning we make content not for the whole country, but for Kurganites. And when you work for Kurgan, these numbers are very good.

Missing hot dog stands, conflict-ridden shawarma joints: the pros and cons of Kurgan«s food service

According to the project«s authors, almost all food service in Kurgan works more or less well.

— Some cook really well. You rarely come across ones that work frankly poorly because the competition is huge.

The guys previously shot a lot of reviews of Kurgan«s shawarma joints. Now they»ve stopped. There are several reasons for this decision.

— Firstly, we have actually tried every shawarma even in the Kurgan region. Secondly, the type of people running these establishments is very difficult. I could even call some of them ignorant people, very hard to cooperate and communicate with. When we did honest, non-commercial reviews, we could receive threats. So over time we gave up on such reviews. It«s dangerous to be truth-tellers in the shawarma sphere! — Stanislav says ironically.

The bloggers call themselves non-confrontational people, ready for communication and compromise.

— We haven«t had any major conflicts, at most—misunderstandings. That is, people lied about us behind our backs, spread rumors that we were sent by competitors and we are engaged in blackmail, like, pay us money or we»ll make a bad review about you. The rumors are very stupid, but people believed them and refused because of it. This was at the very beginning of our career, we were very surprised because we gave no reason for such rumors.

According to the project authors, the most establishments with good shawarma in Kurgan can be found in the central part of the city. They shared their observations on what Kurgan«s food service is lacking.

— There is a lack of workers, the managers themselves tell us this. There are very many establishments, very few employees, and quality (including service) suffers because of it. And in this, in our opinion, the employees themselves are not to blame. They are not bad, they just can«t handle it.

At the same time, the variety of offerings in Kurgan is in full order, say Sergei and Stanislav.

— In terms of rolls and Asian food (like ramen) everything is very good in all districts of the city, good meat is served in many places. But there is a real lack of hot dog stands!

About earnings, sketches, interviews with personalities widely known in narrow circles, and future plans

About their earnings from the project, Stanislav and Sergei say: «The money is good and substantial, but we don»t take it for ourselves, we invest everything back into content and equipment.«

— Another important point: for one person it«s good money, for two—not so much. Earnings come from supporter contributions on VKontakte (they pay a certain amount monthly), that»s the second source. The first source is, naturally, advertising orders and videos. The third is video monetization. There are also donations from grateful viewers.

Now, according to the Kurgan residents, they are more interested in journalism and creating sketches about Kurgan«s problems. Especially since content on social topics is of the most interest to viewers.

— One of our most popular sketches is the one with the bag about Kurgan taxis. On VK it got a million views. Videos about buses, about Uncle Sasha do well. He is a very colorful character, introduces himself as «the president and authority of Kurgan». A very surprising and interesting man with several higher education degrees. Many in Kurgan know him (there are many videos with him on social media), we decided to show his other—internal—side. We were criticized, saying the man has a mental illness and we are harming him. We never understood exactly how we are harming him. So we thought about how to continue, to avoid such moments, to better present ourselves in communication with Uncle Sasha. Seems we«ve figured it out, by the end of the year we»ll make an improved format for such videos. One video with Uncle Sasha, by the way, got over 100,000 views, such videos overshadow food reviews.

The Kurgan residents gave advice to other aspiring bloggers and those wanting to engage in similar activities.

— You need to go through the journey, certain difficulties, but in the end you can come to a good income.

Where the most delicious shawarma in Kurgan is, was previously figured out by a 45.RU correspondent.