I
t’s our last day in Moscow and we’re in the
grand, Art Deco foyer of the hotel when an
explosion of camera flashbulbs sets the
hanging Murano glass chandeliers blazing.
Through the revolving doors marches an army
of beautiful people, all rocking oversized
sunglasses, despite the blizzard outside. A
swarm of paparazzi follows and the clamour is
palpable.
Lady Gaga has arrived for her first-ever
show in the Russian capital and her retinue
is checking in. Looking out over Red Square
from a bank on the Moskva River, this is the kind of place
that has entertained dignitaries of all kinds over the
years, so it’s a fitting destination for pop royalty.
Three days prior, this unexpected celebrity hubbub
might have seemed strange, but after any time at all here,
you realise this is a city at the centre
of its own universe, and one that
operates by its own rules. It’s a place
where you just have to go with the
flow. To see what I mean, perhaps it’s
best to rewind to the beginning...
“
There are no bears on the streets,”
the heavily accented voice on the
phone had told me, “and no men
carrying Kalashnikovs.” It was two
weeks before my visit to Moscow and
I wanted to know how much truth
there was to the cultural touchpoints
I’d grown up with (Solzhenitsyn,
Eisenstein,
Rocky IV
).
Were there fur-hatted guards
patrolling the Kremlin? Oligarchs galore? Did everyone
drink vodka?
That’s why I’d called Bek Narzi. Since opening the
Russian Cocktail Club (
russiancocktailclub.com
)
five
years ago, he’s become the city’s foremost cocktail guru,
sharing the knowledge he picked up in London’s best
watering holes with Moscow’s barmen. If anyone could
provide an insight into the city’s libatory habits, it was
him. After a brief chat we agreed to reconvene at his bar.
And so began a journey during which my expectations
about this 866-year-old, 17m-strong metropolis were
confounded almost as many times as they were confirmed.
Appearances can be deceiving
There’s one street that nicely sums up Moscow today.
Tverskoy Boulevard is one of the oldest thoroughfares
in town. Lined on one side by ornate baroque mansions,
on the other by a pleasingly green canopy of trees, little
appears to have changed here since emperors walked
its pavements in centuries past and esteemed authors
–
from Tolstoy to Chekov – wrote of its charms.
Its most famous current address harks back to that
gilt-edged heritage. Café Pushkin (
cafe-pushkin.ru
)
is
a grand restaurant, oft recommended as the best place for
authentic Russian food. Decked out to resemble a Russian
aristocrat’s home circa 1825, it’s the kind of place you
imagine that oligarchs love, and you can enjoy traditional
treats such as caviar, borscht and
pelmeni
(
dumplings) in
the company of free-spending locals and waiters dressed
up as staff from the early 19th century. Fabulously OTT,
it’s a sign of where the city has been.
Just a few hundred metres down the road is a an
entirely different face of 21st-century Moscow. Sitting just
off the street, Bar Kisa (
facebook.com/kisabarmoscow
)
is
a cool, under-the-radar drinking
den that throws the stereotype of
billionaire-friendly bars to the curb.
Created in the vein of the speakeasies
springing up across Europe, but
with a few more sprinkles of
stardust, it’s where the city’s young,
hip, fashion crowd go. Inside is a riot
of drinking, dancing and hipsters
taking pictures of each other, no
doubt to post in their Twitter feeds.
“
I wanted to create a place where my
friends could come and have fun,”
says
owner
Alexei
Kiselev.
“
Somewhere unlike anywhere else in the city.” Blag your
way in and youwon’t be disappointed.
Does everyone drink vodka?
The view from City Space (
cityspacebar.com
),
the bar
on the 34th floor of the Swissotel Krasnye Holmy hotel,
is impressive. St Basil’s Church glows softly in the dark,
while high-rise buildings, including the Seven Sisters –
gothic skyscrapers commissioned by Stalin – punctuate
the panorama. What’s inside, however, is even more
revealing: it’s Saturday night and not a single person is
drinking shots of Russia’s national spirit.
This is Bek Nazri’s place and his manager, Maxim
Rokhman, has an explanation. “Of course we drink
vodka – we’re Russian – but it’s also a drink we associate
with our parents. The younger generation tend to go for
whisky, tequila or cocktails.” That’s no surprise when the
drinks are as good as Rokhman’s. His Moscow Mule,
Truth No 01
THERE
ARE NO BEARS
ON THE
STREETS
»
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D I S C O V E R Y
M O S C O W
