Who would have thought American 50's and 60's culture would be seen in Russia, of all places? The patrons (and owners) of these restaurants could be curious about what their country was sheltered from during the Cold War.
Pretty Betty is the name of a new franchise in Russia that is in the style of traditional American diners, and judging by these TripAdvisor reviews, it has been around for at least three years.This Russian website (which you can use Google to translate into English), talks about the chain's large selection of American cuisine and cultural pieces that “symbolize the American way of life.”
There are six restaurants in the Pretty Betty franchise where they also show American films from all decades and host themed parties. Some of the films they mention are John Travolta dancing in Saturday Night Fever or Uma Thurman starring in the classic movie Pulp Fiction.
The reporter in this video, Sergey Baklykov, works for the first independent English-language channel about Russia. You can watch him talk about the cultural pieces with mainly a pop-culture idea of what they are, though it appears at times he is being humorous on purpose (which is a classically American thing to do, is it not?). He knows "comicses" are big in America, but isn’t quite sure why they have roller skates hanging up on the wall.
It is entertaining to hear a curious Russian describe American cultural artifacts. It should also be mentioned that most people love the deals and portion sizes; God Bless America’s economies of scale.
Images from Mega74/PrettyBetty