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Far beyond the tourist haunts of Asia and Europe lies Azerbaijan, home of the nevertheless very touristy, gorgeous, chic, and historic capital of Baku. Beyond Baku lies rurality in the strongest sense of the word. Off the beaten tourist tracks even here in this distant corner of the Asian continent, a friendly couple from Akron Ohio decided to feather a nest of familiarity and hospitality in a small farming community on the slopes of the South Caucasus.
The Ohio Inn and Cafe sits about 14 kilometers or 8 miles south of the city of Ismayilli in a town called Ivanovka, and presents a bizarre yet welcoming figure for anyone coming from the USA, who by the point of arriving in Ismayilli will have realized that very few people speak English, and very few local or national customs are similar to those back home.
“I am originally from Iran—Azerbaijan of Iran, which is Tabriz, but ended up doing my Ph.D. in Ohio,” says Hassan, a retired engineer from the Buckeye State and owner of the Ohio Inn, who immigrated after the Revolution of 1982.
“After almost 30 years… I decided I would retire at the age of 62. And then my wife, being from Azerbaijan, she asked me to go and spend retirement there,” he added.
The 6-room accommodation run by Hassan, Tarana, and their administrator Vusal is extremely comfortable, but beyond the amount of free drinking water in the room, the pressure in the shower, and the quality of the food in the restaurant, it’s the qualities of home that really endear the whole space.
While this sentiment and these qualities will affect me more extremely than it might other Americans since I live in Italy, travel a lot, and so rarely experience the comforts of home, there is another reason why I rate the Ohio Inn so highly.
Serendipity
This author came to stay in late October on offer of Hassan’s generosity, after we met under the auspices of good fortune and complete serendipity. Coming to traverse the towns of the South Caucasus, I came to Ivanovka on a whim. Staying in Ismayilli, I saw a coffee table book in a guest house of Azerbaijani destinations that happened to be in English—a rare thing.
I decided that night to slightly alter my plans to visit Sheki and steal away in a cab in the early morning to Ivanovka ahead of my bus. The book related the story of Ivanovka—that it was once peopled by a Russian extreme sect of the Orthodox church called the Malakan (or Molokan); potentially called as such because of their exile by the Tsar in the 18th century to a river called Molochnyye Vody. The book lists another possible explanation. Unlike other Russian Orthodox Christians, they use only milk (moloch) during the fasting periods.
Whatever the reason, they were settled in Ivanovka as part of a later Tsar’s Russification policy of the South Caucasus. I read also that they very much maintain this connection to Russia to this day, and that they never trim their beards; and that for these reasons I decided to take a stroll, and there I found a sign that read “Ohio Inn and Cafe” in English, which struck me even more than the name of the state, which might have been the more obvious marker of its curiosity.
Following the signage I arrived and asked for a coffee from a young Russian-Azeri barista. It was obviously filtered and not made with espresso. I enjoyed it on the tables overlooking a large valley and listened to the birds sing. Before leaving, I asked some clients—Azeri locals having their morning chai—where they got the name Ohio, to which they responded “Boss from America”.
‘What a concept, what a find!’ I thought, but as I was literally walking out of the driveway, Vusal opened the window and said “Boss” after which a second face came out of the window and said enthusiastically, “Come on up and have a cuppa’ coffee” which to my ears was an invitation ringing with all the hard-to-explain emotions of ingrained familiarity and distant, melancholic saudade.
“Baku was kind of crowded for me because in Ohio we lived in a village, so we bought this cottage in Ivanovka,” said Hassan explaining that the Ohio Inn was really born out of COVID-19, after he became disillusioned by online teaching, and is now in its fourth year.
“We had two choices either come back to Ohio or to go to the village and my wife chose Ivanovka”.
Unforgettable Offerings
“We came to the village, and then what are we supposed to do? Get some cows, sheep, chickens; you know, what’re we going to do? So it came to my mind, that this is a historic village—why not a guest house?” he said.
For the design, atmosphere, and quality of the establishment, Hassan turned to fond memories of vacationing in the Mid-Atlantic, in states like New England, Massachusetts, and Vermont, where they would always stay in small guest houses. This sympathy really comes through in the rooms and the halls.
In fact, the whole place is possessing of all the loveliness that people who have an eye for making things just right are able to grant it— as befits the finest hotels. I stayed in the Minnesota Room, which had two thematic maps of the state inside, along with a veranda, insect screens, king-sized bed, sofa, smart TV, fridge, and the largest amount of free water I’ve ever seen in a hotel room.
There was even a Harley Davidson motorcycle gang who stopped by—”The Firelanders”. The surreality was palpable.
The veranda overlooks the large valley on top of which sits the Inn. Down below, grapes and other fruit and nuts are cultivated in orchards. Ivanovka is very much in the middle of agricultural land, and the plain where the town is located is a massive production site for grains and fruit, particularly grapes, and there are also free-ranging beef and dairy cattle on the marginal lands.
“Hassan found me in Baku. I came here and decided the air was good, clean,” said Vusal, gesticulating more than speaking.
The restaurant features an Azeri menu with Russian and American dishes. For example, Azeri filo dough meat pastries, followed by Kielbasa and bread made in the village the Russian way, followed up by that most American of Thai dishes, cashew chicken. Hassan vints his own wines on site, and the dry red, with notes of smokey red cherries made with grapes grown in the valley and surrounding pastures, wasn’t just ‘good for Azerbaijan’ but just good; full stop.
“I used to make my own wine; I got the juice from California,” said Hassan, “then I came to Ivanovka and I realized ‘oh my goodness, all these vineyards!’ So I started making my own wine—natural—fantastic, real wine with nothing added. And people loved it!”
“When I hit 55, I promised myself that I was going to take my life simple. I don’t want to have any debt. My home is mortgage-free, I’m not looking to show off or half expensive this and expensive that; by the time you retire, you shouldn’t be running after making money, you should be running after having peace, minimum stress, and contentment, and thanks god, you know, my wife helped me in that direction”.
To be certain, the only discord, stress, or uneasiness at Ohio Inn is what you bring there with you, because one finds nothing of the sort there. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: The dining room of Ohio Inn. PC: Andrew Corbley ©
