Glass half full

By Matt Brown

Staff Writer

Published: September 12, 2008 (Issue # 1407)

Russkaya Ryumochnaya No. 1 (Russian Vodka Room No.1)

4 Konnogvardeisky Bulvar

Tel: 570 6422.

Open noon through midnight.

Lunch for two without alcohol 3090 rubles ($130)

The company behind the hugely successful Stroganoff Steak House has added a new restaurant to its portfolio in another part of the grand palace on Konnogvardeisky Bulvar where it opened for business a year ago.

For Russians, the new restaurant has an inauspicious name. A ryumochnaya was a kind of street-level vodka bar with high tables and no chairs designed to satisfy the need of working class Russians for a stiff drink with no fuss.

Apart from its vodka connection — St. Petersburg’s fascinating Vodka Museum has been relocated to the same premises and is set to reopen after a revamp next month — Russkaya Ryumochnaya No. 1 (Russian Vodka Room No. 1) could not be a more different kind of establishment from its forerunners.

It is, however, steeped in sense of history. The classic Russian dishes and drinks on its menu date from the Petrine, Imperial and Soviet epochs, while its interior recalls the aristocratic country house settings to be found in the work of Chekhov.

Discreet waiters in buttoned-up, collarless shirts, waistcoats and long aprons glide across the light birchwood parquet in its two airy halls that seat up to 120 guests. Old foxtrots and tangos play quietly as if from a great distance.

Apart from a full range of posh vodkas, Ryumochnaya No. 1 features a range of home-brewed liqueurs and sweet, flavored alcoholic tipples (nastoiki and nalivki) unique to Russian country living — including drinks made with honey, pepper, bison-grass and cranberries. Coca Cola is off the menu; at this restaurant there is only kvass.

Starters include a classic sliced herring with new potatoes, salted cucumbers and diced pickled beet for 240 rubles ($9.35) and chicken liver pate, also for 240 rubles ($9.35). The new potatoes at Ryumochnaya No. 1 are the real thing — small and sweet, and served chilled in a sugary dressing. The spiced pate is rich and filling and served with warm, crustless toast.

A standout starter is the fish platter for 790 rubles ($30). A plate of four types of smoked fish from the salmon family — cisco (omul) from Lake Baikal, sterlet from the River Dvina, salmon from the Baltic Sea, and whitefish (sig) from the Russian Far East — this simple dish balances flavors from salty to smooth to sweet, textures from slimy to flaky to meaty, colors from pale yellow to octopus-ink purple to rosy pink.

Fish also featured in the main courses in the breadcrumb-covered form of a Lake Ladoga pike-perch rissole with mashed potatoes (360 rubles/$14). Prepared in the classic manner of a Chicken Kiev, this surprising and delightful dish is satisfying on every level. The mashed potatoes were also wonderfully buttery, joining the melted butter that ran seductively from the heart of the cutlet.

More conventionally but no less excellent was Russkaya Ryumochnaya No. 1’s Chicken Kiev for 460 rubles ($18). Served with a bone as tradition demands, and accompanied with home made potato chips, the cutlet was enhanced with a cranberry sauce and a side order of cracked buckwheat mixed with mushrooms and chicken hearts.

White banquettes upholstered in cinnamon and gold match the tableware, while Edwardian curios such as pipes and gramophones complete the charming, genteel atmosphere.