Starina Muller (Dmitrovka)

Tucked off of a side street leading away from Moscow's Pushkin square, this is a great little beer oasis in an otherwise beer-poor area. The establishment is divided into three very German looking rooms, two on the ground floor and one upstairs. There is dark wood everywhere, from the furniture to the bar, from the beams in the high ceilings downstairs to the floors of the second floor. The floor on the ground floor was tile, while the ceiling upstairs was light, IKEA like wood. There are big windows in one room downstairs, and small windows in the other rooms. The walls are white plaster, decorated with alternating landscape prints and beer paraphrenalia. All of the waitstaff are dressed in dirndls and lederhosen. The music is very subdued, and very Russian. No oompah stuff here! By 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, the place was close to full.

A quite respectable (for Moscow, anyway) tap beer list is headed by the Germans (Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Spaten, Erdinger, Paulaner (2), Krombacher). The Czech Republic holds three taps (Krusovice pale and dark, Pilsner Urquell), while two taps are dedicated to Russian macros. And Guinness. The menu includes six "elite" beers in bottles, all German: Schenkerle, Alpenmünster (2), Hopf, Hirschbräu and Erdinger's non-alcoholic brew. The "elites" were all outrageously expensive - I went around the corner to the supermarket and found all of them for one fifth the price. The tap beers were served reasonably well, although my Hofbräu Helles came in a wheat glass (but with the HB logo...). The menu was pretty extensive, and reasonably priced for this part of town. The food was OK. Sure, I'll go back.