Just opening an Italian restaurant or pastry shop is no longer enough. The audience is increasingly attracted by non-standard concepts that can captivate in themselves and give an idea of the restaurant even before the first acquaintance with it. This approach immediately clearly sets the atmosphere, formulates the characteristics of the restaurant and programs the target audience. Now, in connection with the crisis in the market caused by the pandemic, non-standard solutions for restaurateurs are all the more important.
Kosher comfort food
The new Rishon Café at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center adheres to the strictest kosher. Before entering the kitchen, new dishes are washed in the synagogue, the Kashrut Department under the Chief Rabbinate of Russia watches the kitchen on video cameras, the mashgiach from the same department turns on and off the stoves, it also monitors the quality of products and their compliance with kosher norms.
Rishon chef Alexander Maron divided the menu into Israeli and European parts. On the one hand – falafel, shakshuka, babaganush, hummus, etc., on the other – pasta and fish. For those who are not in the know: kosher prohibits mixing meat and dairy products not only in one dish, but also in the same kitchen. Therefore, from meat in Rishon there is only pasta bolognese, and even that from vegetable mince Beyond Meat, which kashrut means as parve – a neutral product, “neither milk nor meat.” A significant part of the menu turned out to be with a vegetarian bias. But in general, it turned out to be quite understandable for everyone, without exception, the food. Please note: from the second half of Friday to Sunday, the cafe is closed – Shabbat.
Vagyu restaurant on the food court
Japanese marbled wagyu beef is one of the most expensive foods in the world. Typically used in premium restaurants, the idea of opening a wagyu restaurant in a food court seems incredible. However, Sendai at Tishinka Gastro Hall is just that.
Chef Semyon Sin believes that right now is the time to break stereotypes and offer the delicacy to the maximum number of people at the lowest possible price. To keep the price of a steak within 1500 rubles. for 50 g, and Japanese yucca tartare with quail eggs – for 600 rubles, Sendai buys not only premium cuts, but the whole carcass of a bull. Japanese meat processing partners supply meat with a fine marbled pattern already cut. They also supplied Sendai with self-contained gas grills, on which wagyu is fried at the correct temperature – 220 degrees ℃ (at 240 ℃ it starts to smoke).
Raki, it would seem, food is not from the category that is usually served in a restaurant with a claim to chic. But it was they who became the basis of the menu of “Rakova Grand Cru” by Yevgeny Nichipuruk. Several years ago, he invented Cancer as an alternative to the classic dark beer. In his version of the pub, they discuss art and politics (officials with deputies and students and entrepreneurs go to Cancers alike), ignore shank with sausages and eat crayfish (up to 5 tons per month, so you understand).
Rakovaya Grand Cru is the chain’s flagship, but here the emphasis is on the collection of vodkas (over 40 varieties) and wines. The menu is clearly divided into dishes that match the selected drink. For example, sandwiches with sardines and Yalta onions or with dried duck, figs and sheep’s cheese should be taken with wine, and with Olyutorskaya herring or mackerel forshmak – with vodka. And yes, it is supposed to walk widely here. If crabs and shrimps – then in kilograms, if black caviar – then with vodka, if crayfish – then royally, in a sauce of red and pike caviar. By the way, crayfish are served in two sizes – regular, 50–70 g, and large ones, under 90 g. Experts advise not to chase the size, take ordinary ones and order them cooked in the classical way, with dill and salt.
Gastro-wine
The Six-You-Six gastronomy shops on Mayakovka (on the site of the legendary Ambar) and on Suschevskaya Street (just around the corner from the Profsoyuz bar cluster) were invented by Igor Pisarsky – the same one who once created Petrovich and Vysotsky “. He coined the term itself. The thing is that six-You-Six have added cocktails and food to the vodka, liqueurs and liqueurs that are mandatory for the genre, and food that fully meets the needs of a beautifully drinking guest. There are also quite expected snacks like mini-pasties, julienne or Olivier salad and creative proposals: tiradito from nelma, Yakut muksun in a spicy orange sauce on a leek pillow, stewed barley porridge with wild mushrooms. And the sandwiches, of course – with the doctor’s sausage produced here, smoked bacon, lightly salted salmon or Baltic sprat – are vigorous rehash of Soviet hits.
The peculiarity of gastronorms is the game. In fact, “Six-You-Six” is a kind of alcohol casino: by throwing dice at the house, you can win the first glass, a set of drinks and snacks, or a discount on the total bill. Recklessly.
It is surprising that with the global popularity of hip-hop culture, this happened only now, and not much earlier. Hip-hop bar ASAP appeared on Sretensky Boulevard. The interior is covered with graffiti (the walls and the bar counter were decorated with graffiti teams “Why”, All Day Every Day and “NEMA”), broken rhythms beat from the columns. The name of the bar is a hint that the order will be served almost instantly. For this, for example, all cocktails in the bar are poured from the taps. Most are done simply, but in fashionable techniques: a mixture of brandy and cola is clarified (Snowflake), negronies are saturated with nitrogen and thickened with xanthan, it turns out almost jelly (Nitro Negroni), purple alcoholic cough syrup flavored spinning in a slash machine (Lin).
The kitchen tries no less. With the participation of the famous vegan chef Elena Savchuk, ASAP chef Ivan Shevchuk has composed a menu in which pork ribs, mitballs and junk food like tacos, chebureks and hot dogs – hip-hop are all alongside pumpkin hummus, tomato curry and spicy eggplants. -So it requires a lot of energy.
Non-alcoholic bar
Metropoliten Gourmet at the corner of Zubovskaya Square is Moscow’s first sober-bar where all cocktails are non-alcoholic. To some extent, he continues the traditions of Soviet youth exemplary cafes, where they sipped citro and juices, but complements them with a modern idea of awareness. The interior in the style of the 60s (bright walls, smooth and streamlined furniture, laconic furniture) only emphasizes this. “Today, when conscious consumption is in trend, the popularity of such establishments is growing: people are increasingly refusing alcohol and preferring to meet over a glass of something non-alcoholic,” says the founder of the project Hamlet Margaryan.
At Metropoliten, drinks are blended from juices and non-alcoholic distillates in the style of ancient herbal infusions. Taste the rich Metropolitan of plums, lemongrass and non-alcoholic distillate for an overall cocktail menu impression. There are many different interesting combinations in it – from cream with pomegranate and tabasco with orange to coffee with oat milk and nutella. If you don’t drink a lot in a real cocktail bar – you get drunk, then here – you have enough: all the drinks are quite dense and you can get enough of a couple or three. Especially if you order a local celebrity – “Kokai” with a bar of ice cream and a bag of powdered sugar in the appendage.
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