St. Petersburg Bids Farewell to Restaurateur Vadim Lapin

The farewell ceremony for one of Russia«s most famous restaurateurs took place at the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. The funeral service began five minutes earlier than scheduled — at 2:00 PM.

The approaches to the cemetery were filled with luxury cars, including Rolls-Royces and limousines. Hundreds of people, mostly dressed in black, came to the church and cemetery. Among them were Lapin«s colleagues and friends:

• brand chef and co-owner of La Biga Anton Isakov;
• brand chef and co-owner of Uva Nikita Sechin;
• chef and co-owner of Charlie Yury Manchuk;
• restaurateurs Alena Melnikova and Alexandra Fleishman;
• chef of Bergamot Oleg Perfilov;
• founder of the restaurants «Children in the Kitchen» and «Corn» Anna Sotnikova;
• Lapin«s former assistant Yekaterina Potashova;
• manager of Ginza Project projects Leonid Vorobyov.

Also participating in the ceremony were film director Alexander Sokurov, vice-president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers Leonid Garbar, vice-president of the holding company «Adamant» Yevgeny Gurevich, general director of Jensen Group Dmitry Abramov, and State Duma deputy Mikhail Romanov. Towering over the crowd was the restaurateur«s eldest son, Mark Lapin.

After the service, which lasted about half an hour, the coffin was carried out of the church at 3:13 PM. A procession of several hundred people moved along the cemetery alleys. Many noted that they had never seen so many people at a funeral.

During the farewell, the ceremony host noted that Vadim Lapin, together with partners, «changed the rules of the game in the restaurant business and brought it to a qualitatively new level.» Other speakers spoke quietly, but their words reached those around them: «thank you for everything you did,» «the purest person,» «he was like a father to me.»

Entrepreneur Alexander Gurevich, one of the first to approach the coffin, had earlier recalled on social media: «I met Vadim 10 years before the opening of the first restaurant. We with him … stood at the origins of supplying our beloved country with food. We brought everything, all that could be brought into the country in containers with a long shelf life. We were all young and ambitious… Vadim was an extremely pleasant person to communicate with, I don»t know people who didn«t love him…»

Many women could not hold back tears. One of those present loudly said to her friends: «I was completely overwhelmed on the second day, I thought that now HE would appear and say: »You won«t wait…»«

The grave was completely covered with dozens of wreaths and thousands of flowers. On the ribbons were inscriptions: «From PSB Bank,» «From the restaurant »Plyushkin«,» «From the Gvichiya family,» «From Aram and Natalya,» «Your family. Ginza Restaurant.» Despite the cold and windy weather, people spent over an hour and a half in the frost. After the ceremony, they were invited to warm up with tea and pies with cabbage, potatoes, apples, or red fish — such care reflected the character of Vadim Lapin, who always thought about ensuring that guests did not go hungry.