New York Press
March 25, 2003

GABRIELLA GERSHENSON

 

As of late, Russian decadence has been very much in vogue. In line with the Russian Debutante’s Handbook and the Russian lesbian entertainers, tATu, the Brooklyn-based chocolate shop and self-styled "Chocolatier to the Czars" Alexandra & Nicolay brings cheeky Russian indulgence to the American market.

The recipes are this operation’s claim to fame. Alexandra Mazhirov, along with her husband, Nicolay, supposedly recreate the "lost recipes" of the czar’s favorite chocolates in their Bensonhurst shop, and they even share first names with Russia’s last czar and czarina. In their quest for "imperial" chocolate, the couple appears to have taken some liberties. One variety, "Breakfast of the Czars," is a peasant-shaped chocolate (complete with a basket, babushka and wide hips) filled with a hazelnut praline and truffle layer.

The Mazhirovs and their two daughters immigrated to what they call "the land of opportunity" after closing their glasnost-era chocolate factory in the Ukraine. The family settled in Brooklyn in 1992—Nicolay started as a limousine driver, and Alexandra briefly worked as an accountant. But they still nurtured dreams of chocolate.

"All of the time we were thinking about our future in the chocolate world, because we are obsessed with chocolate," Nicolay recently explained through a chocolate-filled mouth.

Adapting to American life, though, proved to be tough.

"We saw fudge, fudge, everywhere is fudge," he said. "In Russia, nobody knows what is it."

Alexandra is the chocolate specialist, while Nicolay is the store’s manager (and, it appears, the spokesperson). They opened Alexandra & Nicolay in 1994, hoping to appeal to a more sophisticated clientele with their kitschy image and high-quality ingredients. "Russians and Europeans are crazy about natural," Nicolay said. "Americans will eat pure chemicals if it’s ‘no fat’. If you like real chocolate, you can’t worry about fat, schmat or whatever." The Mazhirovs’ chocolate of choice is Belgian, and each candy is handmade on site at the shop.

Apart from their peasant shapes and rarefied production techniques, the "czar’s chocolates" don’t appear to be much more decadent than most high-end chocolate lines. In fact, some of them almost seem healthy. "Fruit of the Czars," a brandy-soaked apricot, plum, or cherry stuffed with an almond and dipped in semisweet Belgian chocolate, and the gold leaf clusters, rustic little nuggets of crushed hazelnuts bound by honey in milk, dark, or white chocolate, seem like something your grandmother might make you eat, and are certainly more wholesome than the incredibly buttery truffle-filled varieties.

So with all the talk of nobility, do Alexandra and Nicolay have any blue blood? Nicolay shrugs. "We have some [noble] roots in our blood," he told me, "but it’s America, here nobody cares about our blood, they care about what you are. Main importance in American aristocracy is to be good person, smart person, hard-working person."

These days, Alexandra and Nicolay are hard at work filling Easter orders, which include bunnies, eggs, angels and overflowing chocolate baskets.

"This year, we may try to make Faberge eggs, too. Maybe we call them ‘Czar’s Eggs.’"

Alexandra & Nicolay Chocolate, 6502 20 Ave. (at 65th St.), Bensonhurst, 718-331-4985