“Labor is a song, but let someone else sing it”. In one of the most iconic places – “Vodolaza”you will be welcomed with this phrase. It’s located on “Mladejka”31 st. in the middle of the market. The cantiniere gives a finished look to the environment. It is Kostadin Hristov ship on whose decks more than one or two brave men were saved.
Koceto took the interim facility back in 1992. In 1995 he baptizes it with the sonorous name "Vodolaza" and turns it into a mini ship of sea food and good mood. There you can taste sprat, fillet of mackerel and fries, which are an integral part of any summer dish. Besides the food, the drinks are iconic as well, because many of them are no longer available. They disappeared after the fall of communism and only the memory of them turns us back into childhood. Lemonade, apple cider, orange cider in glass bottles decorate the window which is adorned with all sorts of pictures, mostly of naked women. On the other side of the bar is the specific “oxygen for divers” or to be exact – the rakiyas. It’s Dragan Draganovs idea. He is no longer with us, but the tradition still lives.
The “Vodolaz”is coffee-pub. Nothing more! Since I was little I fall in love with the sea and I wanted to become captain, says the owner who serve customers friendly with a sailor shirt and a hat that says admiral. In the menu is written “Nobody’s perfect” which shows that everyone is welcome to his ship, even if they have gnarly character.
The captain definitely puts freshness in the place which because of the low prices, strategic location and nostalgia for the past always has a clientele. There’s a funny tease all around the place. There is one that says “If you get yelled at home, come back”. Or guide of the diver, in other words - native drinker who has no equal. There are even poems written about the pub. On the facade are painted murals. One of them is dedicated to the former Varna bishop who drowned in 2013.
Well, this is the “Vodolaza”. Twenty five years old place. Sprat, beer and fries and one admiral spinning the wheel.
