A Café with Pretensions

The comic plot of A Café with Pretensions takes us to Sofia in 1966, to the apartment of Milcho—a 43-year-old head of an advertising bureau.

There we find him together with his “buddy” Milko, also 43. They are frantically preparing for the arrival of two ladies they happened to chat up earlier that day, inviting them for coffee on Rakovska Street.

Milcho’s advice—he is far more experienced when it comes to courting—almost gives Milko the courage he needs. Although he is an architect, Milko has advanced in his career only as far as the coveted position of “head of the department’s technical documentation”; when it comes to women, however, he is utterly inexperienced.

At the height of the preparations, their third friend, Minko, unexpectedly and uninvitedly arrives at the apartment. A 43-year-old research associate specializing in Old Bulgarian, his heartfelt desire is to escape the “comforts of family life,” whose shackles he has recently fallen into, and have a drink with his friends.

This evening and its unexpected outcome give rise to a host of absurd and hilarious situations.