Angara Restaurant And Brewery

I had to go to a bank in this neighborhood to get replacement travelers checks and we happend to walk by this brewpub so we stopped in for a beer. I got a liter mug of wheat beer which was quite good. After finishing my beer I made my way upstairs to the bathroom and was tackled on the stairs by security because apparently I beeped in the metal detector. The one time in my visit to Russia when my translator turned her back I get in trouble. It would have been worse if she didn't run over because I was ready to fight not realizing it was security. I just wanted to go to the bathroom! Places like this is why Americans don't travel in Russia.

Located on Moscow's equivalent of Broadway, Angara is a metaphor for the new Russia. The ground floor is a fairly nice little bar with about ten tables. They don't serve food here, but the beers are good, if you can find a bartender to serve you one. The main room is upstairs. To get there, go to the back of the bar, next to the brew kettles, then empty your pockets and go through a metal detector under the watchful eyes of a couple of goons. Assuming you pass muster with them, head upstairs to a huge room with a long serpentine bar, perhaps twenty booths and some fifty tables. All red leather. Lots of wait staff and TVs, plus a few slot machines at one end. At night the place is packed with hookers, tourists and newly rich Russians. At lunch, it is completely empty. The food is typical bland Muscovite fare - stewed meat, vegetable soup, steamed veggies or fried potatoes. They serve three varieties of their home-brewed beer: pale lager, unfiltered pale lager and dark lager. The list never changes. They are decent beers, but the atmosphere makes it all pretty hard to swallow. If you are in Moscow, it will be hard to miss Angara. Too bad.