Elephant Bar

This is Moscow's answer to the Brickskeller - 150 bottles of beer on the wall, literally. Located in a surprisingly run-down section of central Moscow, the Elephant covers two nicely appointed rooms below ground in an apartment building. There's room here for maybe 80 people, including six at the bar. The walls in the room with the bar are lined all the way around by a single row of bottles covering their extensive selection. Above that are framed photos from an old Soviet movie not in any way connected to beer or this particular establishment. Guess the owner liked the flick.

The bar offers ten taps, including two brewed especially for them - a pale and a wheat. Neither was great. The rest of the taps are the usual international macro suspects. The bottled beer list, however, is 150 entries long, from 24 countries. The UK and Belgium are particularly well represented, while Germany's entries were all big and boring brews. The US was represented by Bud and Miller. Sigh. They had offerings from Brazil, India and Thailand. Not bad, really, but I was disappointed by the lack of imagination in Russian samples.

After sampling the beer brewed for them, I ordered a St. Peter's Porter from England. Just like when serving a fine wine, the waiter brought out the unopened bottle and a mini-ice bucket. He showed me the label, then ceremoniously popped the top. Then he produced a 100cl (about 4 oz) sample glass and was about to pour it. At that point, I stopped him and asked for a full half-liter glass, and told him he could take away his ice bucket. He shrugged his shoulders and complied, then expertly poured the beer into the proper sized glass (a handled mug). The beer was not chilled at all, but it was certainly fresh (expiration date of 4/2004).

The food was pretty good - try the homemade sausages - and not too expensive. This place is definitely worth looking for.