Tomskoye Pivo

 

U Krugera is the restaurant and bar attached to the macrobrewery in Tomsk, Siberia. I love this place! In addition to a large outdoor seating area including a couple of Russian and American pool tables, inside there is a bar area featuring eight picnic table sized booths, a separate restaurant room holding probably twenty tables, and a small VIP room of three tables with nice marble fireplace. Upstairs there is a Russian billiard table (balls are bigger, pockets smaller than American billiards) and a hotel! You gotta love it.

The bar offers all dozen or so products of the Tomskoye Pivo macrobrewery, but only two are ever on tap. That lost them some points for "selection". The quality of the beer has increased vastly over the course of the past year, thanks to a retired German brewmaster who has been advising the brewery on and off for about nine months. He knows what he's doing - even if he did tell me that he saw no benefit to violating the purity law, even in the interest of more interesting beers. Consequently, all of Tomskoye's products conform to the law. Service has always been good, as has the general quality of the beers - not that all of the beers are really good, but the restaurant serves them as they should be served. The food is standard Russian fare, but perfectly edible. Not that there are many alternatives in Tomsk, but I always make a point of visiting this place.