The reference points to a famous scene from Ilf and Petrov's novel «The Twelve Chairs,» in which Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov (nicknamed «Kisa») takes Liza to the «Prague» restaurant — the «model cafeteria of the MSPO» and «the best place in Moscow,» as Ostap Bender assures him.
At the restaurant, Vorobyaninov, a former marshal of the nobility, finds himself entirely out of his element. Handed the menu, he exclaims in surprise: «Well now,» he mutters, «veal cutlets, two-twenty-five, fillet, two-twenty-five, vodka, five rubles.» The prices on the menu deal the first blow to Kisa's self-regard; he feels utterly out of place and gradually loses his veneer of the polished man of society.
The whole episode is packed with comic moments: Vorobyaninov can't remember proper restaurant etiquette, feels embarrassed by his clothes, is afraid of looking poor, orders inappropriately cheap dishes (sausages and pickles) instead of the delicacies the waiter suggests, gets drunk from sheer awkwardness, and finally makes an unseemly scene over the bill, asking the waiter: «Perhaps you'd also like the key to the apartment where the money is kept?»
The episode illustrates the tragicomic position of the «former people» in the new Soviet society: a onetime aristocrat, accustomed to a certain social standing, unable to adapt to the new realities, and, in trying to keep up appearances, only making a fool of himself.
In the context of a novel about 1993 Russia, a reference like this feels especially apt. The shock transition to a market economy and the sharp social stratification that followed created similar situations, where people who'd recently had stable footing suddenly found themselves bewildered by the new economic realities — not least, by the prices at establishments catering to the «New Russians.»