The Tamada’s Tale

Luarsab Togonidze is a restaurateur, singer, ethnographer and expert on Georgian traditional artefacts, attire and customs. He’s also an acclaimed tamada, or toastmaster. When we meet, he’s wearing a black chokha, the handsome, calf-length wool coat that’s been a symbol of Georgian identity since the Middle Ages. He’s holding a silver azarpesha, the long-handled drinking vessel the tamada may use to share wine with other guests at the dinner table.

“My family has been involved in the hospitality business for several generations,” he says. “My great-grandfather had two restaurants in Tbilisi but during the dangerous Soviet times the family left the city for our clan’s homelands in Racha.” Luarsab’s father later took over running the country’s most popular restaurant, Salobie, and Luarsab is himself a partner in two Tbilisi restaurants, Azarpesha and Polyphonia.