Restaurants

Glavpivtorg By Jennifer Chater

Issue 11 November 4 - December 2, 2004

	Jennifer Chater
	beer pyramid: Glavpivtorg

At its highly visible location on a corner across the road from the Sedmoi Kontinent supermarket at the beginning of Ulitsa Bolshaya Lubyanka, this beer restaurant catches the eye with its enormous floor-to-ceiling windows and its neon signs in a nostalgic cursive script.

Inside, you’ll find an elegant, spacious interior that doesn’t immediately evoke the 1960s-80s vibe that the restaurant’s business cards promise. The high-ceilinged, stylishly furnished main hall has two levels, with the upper balcony overlooking the bandstand below; if you come at the right time you might catch the Glavpivtorg lounge cats’ rendition of “Girl From Ipanema.” The real highlight of the main hall, however, is the cascading six-level beer mug pyramid fountain set into one wall, with a Soviet-style slogan emblazoned above: “Demand A Top-Up of Beer After the Head Has Settled.” (Fortunately, we didn’t have to.)

Nathan Toohey
Glavpivtorg: Old-Fashioned Favorites

Glavpivtorg has two house beers on the menu — stolovoye light and yantarnoye amber— with a third dark beer promised soon. Brewed specially for Glavpivtorg in the town of Pushkin near St. Petersburg, these very palatable beers cost 75 rubles for a half-liter mug. The mugs, by the way, are the classic Soviet model, and 0.3-liter servings are not on the menu. There’s also a fairly standard selection of imported beers at fairly standard prices.

The menu thankfully leaves out all the wurst and other overdone Germanic cliches that usually dominate at local beer restaurants. Here, the food is simple, old-fashioned and Russian, and the prices are good. The Astrakhan salad (175 rubles) with sturgeon, potato, lightly salted cucumbers and a moderate amount of mayonnaise was delicious, as was the complimentary warm, fresh bread. The so-called rybny shnitsel (fish schnitzel, 320 rubles) was more like a chicken kiev made of sturgeon and stuffed with crab instead of butter — simple yet sophisticated, for something deep-fried. The veal shashlik (225 rubles) was tender and lean, except for the slices of pork fat with rye bread that the menu did not warn would be sandwiched between the veal cubes. As a result, the veal tasted of pork — not something every diner would appreciate.

There’s also an enticing selection of inexpensive hot and cold starters well suited to beer-drinking, making this a good spot for a brew even if you’re not planning on having a full meal.