talk of the town

Published: August 1, 2012 (Issue # 1720)

As Olympic fever sweeps the planet, there are those glued to the TV screen, anxiously following their team’s progress, and then there are those who just cannot manage to feel even the slightest interest in sport. No matter how indifferent you feel to the Games themselves, the Olympic offer at the Hotel Astoria is enough to get anyone feeling warm and fuzzy about female wrestlers and men jumping into sandpits.

The Astoria has teamed up with Brown’s Hotel in London, which along with the Astoria belongs to Rocco Forte Hotels, to bring some dangerously delectable cocktails from The Donovan Bar at Brown’s to the Astoria’s Kandinsky Bar for the duration of the Summer Olympics. The classic cocktail recipes brought especially from the hotel in Mayfair, which was known for being the favorite place to stay of Sir Winston Churchill, include the Box Brownie, Sidecar and Paradise.

The refreshing drinks are available at the Kandinsky Bar through Aug. 12.

For those more interested in getting some exercise than watching the champions battle it out, the city has plenty of summer options. The sun is back in town, and this means the return of outdoor yoga and dance classes on the grass at New Holland island. The entrance to a 90-minute class costs 350 rubles, and no pre-booking is required. At 3 pm. Thursday there is a free lesson in body ballet from Isadora dance school. Thursday is also Yoga Day at New Holland: Starting at 7 p.m., Full Moon Yoga begins, complete with Indian cuisine and free master classes. At midnight, join in a group meditation under the guidance of yoga expert Vinay Menon. For details, check www.newhollandsp.ru.

Open-air dining in the city now has a fresh new twist with the arrival of Besedki restaurant on the local dining scene. Located in the President Hotel in the town of Zelenogorsk on the outskirts of St. Petersburg on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, Besedki (Pavilions) offers bookable pavilions as well as tables. Each pavilion seats four or five people and is perfect for a family get-together. The cuisine is as close to a typical dacha barbecue as possible.

Food from a little further afield will be featured in September’s edition of the Chef’s Discovery project, which will bring the flavors of South Africa to St. Petersburg. Last month’s incarnation of the gastronomic project saw St. Petersburgers treated to a dinner from Italy’s Michelin-starred chef Giancarlo Morelli, the man behind Osteria del Pomiroeu. Hosted by Mansarda restaurant, the dinner became a triumph of Morelli’s philosophy — state-of-the-art home-cooking in which regional products take center stage. The Italian maestro came to the city armed only with Modena balsamic vinegar, olives and olive oil. The menu he created at Mansarda consisted of Parmesan ice cream on top of onion pie, green nettle risotto with deer carpaccio, scallops with eggplant and tomatoes and veal fillet served with white cabbage cooked with sour cream and honey. The strawberry semifreddo served with cappuccino sorbet that crowned the meal could safely be declared iconic.