For the first time since the end of the war, Sasha goes to the table of his “Old Town Bar” to prepare a cocktail. It was my request. And I watch with pride how the author of most famous and delicious cocktails in Stepanakert takes a tall golden metal glass in his hands and starts to work.

“I am quite sleepy in the daytime. Just now, I was reading recipes for new cocktails and napped. And then you came. I am so weak...” – says Sasha, Alexander Brutyan, and begins to make a cocktail with one hand, while with the other shows where his wounds are on the abdomen, arm and leg.

On September 28, Sasha went to war so that his brother would not be there alone. Two days later, on the 30-th, he was wounded. On October 1, after the first operation, he was transported to Yerevan. And from that moment on, for 11 days, Sasha, the author of the most famous and delicious cocktails in Stepanakert, was in a coma. He says he felt like he was in a pool. "I stood naked in a pool, clinging to the wall, and the water kept rising."

However, all this time he heard and understood what was being said around him.

Sasha says, he was like in the middle of two worlds. "What I heard was from this world, and what I saw was from another."

Sasha underwent several difficult operations. His esophagus, stomach and lung were damaged, and his arm was broken. Before the war, he worked not only in his family cafe, but also in another place. Now he cannot return to his previous job, as physically he is not ready, and will not be for several years.

At the bar Sasha is at his creative best. The cocktail is new, prepared for the first time. “I look at you and I want it to be just for you, to be like you. I try to do something unique and inimitable for everyone, so that everyone feels like he or she is unique,” – says Sasha, and the metallic golden glass, which enters into another golden metal glass, tinkles melodiously.

It is in this glass that Sasha's cocktail gets its own unique taste. My cocktail turns out to be a little sour, but at the same time is sweet․ The alcohol does not burn my throat; I am starting to feel it only when my mood changes, and I understand that this is the alcohol’s influence. The liquid in my cup is bright red, it is burning but cold. And cool.

Sasha says the cocktail is like me. Sip after sip I drink it to the bottom. Small ice crystals remain in the cup. I'm leaving to give Sasha a rest.

He is still weak. It will take years for him to recover.

by Ani Minasyan

Photo Credit: Boris Goncharov - Alexander Brutyan is making one of his famous cocktails. Stepanakert, Artsakh/January, 2021