MOSCOW>
This month, American Airlines begins nonstop service to Russia’s capital from Chicago O’Hare. So we thought what better way to introduce you to the city than to have a few local luminaries show you around. --
Natalia Istratova
Press representative for the Moscow Zoo
| “The Moscow Zoo was founded in 1864 and is probably the only zoo that officially opened in winter. We have 1,000 species of animals and 6,000 specimens. We’re also the only zoo in the world that has the long-nosed echidna. I like our night house, which [features] nocturnal animals such as the Russian flying squirrel, chinchillas, and harvest mice.” |
Vsevolod Baronin
Music journalist and editor of Legioner Weekly, the newsletter for chain music store Purple Legion
| “It’s really strange, but the ‘best’ restaurants in Moscow, in terms of prices, don’t offer the best food, so I strongly recommend some national food chains. The best are Yolki-Palki and Moo-Moo. Yolki-Palki has slightly more Russian-oriented food and a national ambience, and Moo-Moo has more simple and democratic eateries.” |
Alexei Kuzovlev
Music promoter, Irond/Nuclear Blast Records
| “If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, you might [have a problem finding food] in Moscow, so visit Avocado café. It has great food, a nice interior, excellent service, and a rich [selection]. My favorite shop in Moscow is the Tea and Coffee House, the oldest one in the city. … It was built in 1896 and is remarkable for its traditions and unique outside and inside decor: a pagoda, dragons, snakes, and Chinese lanterns.” |
Peter Cheremushkin
Art historian, lecturer, and researcher at Moscow State University
| “Over the last couple of years, Moscow has experienced growth in new private and state museums, including Burganov’s House, a museum of the contemporary sculptor Aleksandr Burganov, known for his monument of the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin in Washington, D.C. The museum offers a collection of sculptures from the last 20 years, including portraits of famous Russians such as ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev and filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.” |
Marisa Fushille
Director of the American Center
| “You’ve called me on the anniversary of the day that I moved to Moscow nine years ago! My favorite museum is Gorky House, an incredible art-nouveau mansion. Also, go to Leo Tolstoy’s Moscow residence [Tolstoy House], and the house where artist Viktor Vasnetsov lived -- you can see his paintings of Russian fairy tales. I like the Georgian restaurants Tiflis and Genatsvale. The most popular food here is sushi. It’s so bizarre. Every restaurant, even if it’s Italian, has a sushi menu.” |
Andrew McChesney
Editor in chief of the Moscow Times
| “Everyone who comes to Moscow has to go to Café Pushkin. It’s in a very old mansion, so you get a lot of atmosphere. The food is traditional Russian cuisine, and it’s served by a waiting staff [dressed] in traditional Russian clothing. Visitors should also go to Manezh Square, which is next to Red Square. In Gorky Park, you can board a water taxi in summer and go up the Moscow River to the Kievsky train station. You can see an awful lot of Moscow that way.” |
Aleksandr Vedernikov
Chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre
| “Novodevichy Convent and Kolomenskoye, a park on the bank of the Moscow River in the south, are a couple of remaining examples of the Moscow of the Middle Ages. Zamoskvorechye, which means the part of Moscow beyond the Moscow River, is a traditional merchants area that was inhabited in the nineteenth century. I also like some of the old park areas, like Lefortovo and Kuskovo. … These places allow one to feel the spirit of old Moscow.” |
Oleg Kireyev
Owner of the Union of Composers Club
| “I like the Pushkin Museum, which is a museum of not only fine art but also of the Russian story. Go there and you will understand more about the Russian soul. We have seven special houses [Stalin’s Seven Sisters] that were produced in the Stalin era, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hotel Ukraina, an apartment house on Kotelnicheskaya quay [Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building], and Moscow State University. They’re very beautiful. And Sparrow Hills [Vorobyovy Gory] has a great view of the city.” |
William J. Burns
United States Ambassador to Russia
| “I am a big fan of Moscow’s Oblomov restaurant, which is housed in a beautiful three-story, nineteenth-century mansion in the city center. Named for Ivan Goncharov’s famous 1859 novel, the restaurant is reminiscent of imperial Russia, and the food is superb. … My favorite dish is the pelmeni -- Russian dumplings filled with meat and mushrooms. I always recommend that visitors stop by the Yeliseyevsky food store, a 100-year-old supermarket on Tverskaya, Moscow’s main street. It always makes me feel like I’m shopping in a palace.” |
global traveler that you are, you surely have favorite places in all of the cities you visit. why not share them with others? send us an e-mail with your picks to favorites@americanwaymag.com
or go to www.americanwaymag.com/favorites
and join in the discussion. |
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contact info
avocado
12 chistoprudny bulvar
011-7-495-921-7719
bolshoi theatre
1 teatralnaya ploshad
011-7-495-250-7317
www.bolshoi.ru/en
burganov’s house
bolshoy afanasyevsky per. 15, str. 9
011-7-495-202-1547
www.burganov.ru
café pushkin
26-a tverskoy bulvar
011-7-495-739-0033
www.cafe-pushkin.ru
genatsvale
12/1 ulitsa ostozhenka
011-7-495-202-0445
gorky central park of rest and culture
9 krymskiy val
www.moscow.info/parks/gorky-park.aspx
gorky house museum
6/2 malaya nikitskaya ulitsa
011-7-495-290-0535
hotel ukraina
2/1 ctp. 1, kutuzovsky prospekt
011-7-495-221-55-55
www.ukraina-hotel.ru
kolomenskoye
39 prospekt andropova
011-7-495-112-5217
kotelnicheskaya embankment building
1 kotelnicheskaya naberezhnaya
www.moscow-life.com/moscow/seven-sisters
kuskovo park and estate
40 muzeynaya 3-ya ulitsa
011-7-495-370-0750
www.moscow.info/parks/kuskovo-park.aspx
lefortovo park
krasnokazarmennaya ulitsa
www.moscow.info/parks/lefortovo-park.aspx
ministry of foreign affairs of russia
32/34 smolenskaya-sennaya ploshad
011-7-495-244-4119
www.mid.ru
moo-moo
various locations
www.moscow-life.com/eat/restaurants_details/89-moo_moo
moscow state university
lomonosov moscow state university,gsp-2, leninskie gory
011-7-495 939-1000
www.msu.ru/en/
moscow zoo
b. gruzinskaya, 1. zoopark
011-7-495-255-6034
www.moscowzoo.ru/
novodevichy convent
1 novodevichy prospekt
011-7-495-246-8526
oblomov
monetchikovsky 1-y pereulok, 5
011-7-495-953-6620
pushkin museum of fine arts
volkhonka ulitsa, 12
011-7-495-203-9578
www.museum.ru/gmii/defengl.htm
sparrow hills (vorobyovy gory)
station on the sokolnicheskaya line of the moscow metro
tea and coffee house (perlov tea house)
myasnitskaya ulitsa, 19
011-7-495-625-4656
tiflis
ostozhenka ulitsa, 32
011-7-495-290-2897
www.tiflis.ru
tolstoy house (tula region)
shchekino district, p/o yasnaya polyana
011-7-487-517-6118
www.yasnayapolyana.ru/english/museum/memorial/index.htm
union of composers club (souz kompozitorov)
8/10 building 2, bryusov lane
011-7-495-629-6563
eng.ucclub.ru/
viktor vasnetsov house (branch of the state tretyakov gallery)
13 vasnetsov pereulok
011-7-495-281-1329
www.tretyakov.ru/english/visit.shtml
yeliseyevsky magazin (shop)
14 tverskaya
011-7-495-209-4643
yolki-palki (elki-palki)
18a tverskaya ulitsa
011-7-495-200-3920
www.elki-palki.ru