An engineer in Kazakhstan, Leonid Likhten relocated to Canada in 1995 to join family friends who had immigrated to Montreal. To make ends meet, he worked odd jobs for several years, before finally buying a pizzeria on the bustling Queen Mary Street in 2001. With that he could invest himself in a family business. Yet with so many Eastern Europeans in the area, and so many Russian patrons, Leonid felt his little restaurant had untapped potential. "We had so many Russian customers, and it got us thinking," says Leonid. Soon the decision was made – La Caverne would become a Russian restaurant specializing in the homemade dishes of the old country.
Pizza was off the menu, leaving La Caverne with an all-new mission: to let Montrealers discover the best of Eastern European cuisine and give those from the old country a place where they could enjoy a typical dish from home.
