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Restaurants

Chainy Klub Na Vekovoi
By Sveta Graudt
Issue 6
May 13 - June 10, 2004

 
Alexander Antonov
Taste of China: Chainy Klub na Vekovoi
This correspondent got drunk on tea, and here’s how it happened.

After I wandered through the dark, lost and frustrated, a kind gentleman pointed me in the direction of the two-story Chainy Klub na Vekovoi (Tea Club on Vekovaya Ulitsa). Inside, I was ushered into a coatroom where I had to remove my shoes. Next, I met my host for the evening, manager Vyacheslav Altunyan, who declared, “There is no conversation without tea.” He showed me into a large room filled with low tables and cushions where we sat for the next 2 1/2 hours.

Spending this much time, or even longer, in a tea club is not unusual. You probably won’t hear questions like this one that was recently heard in Moskva-Berlin cafe: “Are you finished? Now move along, we have a lot of people waiting.”

In contrast, Altunyan is a laid-back guy who wears glasses and keeps his hair long, a bit like Ozzy Osbourne, but younger. “You sail into this harbor for an hour or so,” he said. “The best feeling is when you have missed everything and are no longer in a hurry.”

Unlike a Japanese tea ceremony, in China the focus is on the taste and aroma of the tea, and not on the ceremony itself. The club aims to serve only the finest brands of tea, purchased in China; these are also sold in the club’s shop for $100 to $5,000 a kilogram. You can buy a kilogram of some very good tea for $250, Altunyan said.

These refined teas aren’t meant to be imbibed with food. When my stomach, unaccustomed to large doses of strongly brewed tea, began begging for food, I asked if there was anything to snack on. Altunyan returned with a dish of nuts and dried fruit.

Lounging on embroidered silk cushions, we inhaled the aroma of the tea and made wishes, as custom dictated. We must have consumed 2 liters of tea from tiny cups that could barely hold two gulps.

“The secret of good tea is threefold,” reflected Altunyan. “It lies in the master’s hands, the tea and the water.”

One of the tea club’s missions is to introduce Muscovites to modern Chinese culture. For this reason, the second floor contains a gallery where you can buy handmade Chinese desks, and chairs, as well as traditional paintings and porcelain teapots. It’s not cheap “made in China” junk: The gallery’s manager knows the craftsmen personally and talks about the pieces with great pride.

After visiting the gallery, I had to call it a day. I was feeling tipsy and told Altunyan as much. “Take off your shoes and stay,” he replied. “Things like that happen. Sometimes folks can’t put two words together.”



Chainy Klub Na Vekovoi
20a Vekovaya Ul., (enter from Maly Rogozhsky Per.) (M. Ploshchad Ilyicha)
Bldg. 3 (enter from Maly Rogozhsky Per.), 738-8015, 3pm-midnight, weekends 1pm-midnight

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