Marienbad

This new "Pivnoy Restaranchik" (roughly "little beer restaurant") opened in January 2004 and is now the closest place to home where I can get a nice brew. There are two fairly small rooms with a total seating capacity of about 50. There is a small bar in one corner of the first room, with a large screen TV on the opposite wall. The floor is multi-colored tile, the walls yellow plaster, the fairly high ceiling white. The future is pale wood and qute new. There's not much decoration: a couple of sketches on one wall, a stuffed turkey above the divider between the two rooms, and stained-glass images of, presumably, the town of Marienbad in that same divider. The place has a renovated Soviet feel to it. There were a handful of patrons at 1:30 on a Monday afternoon.

The beer page in the menu boasted "the cheapest draft beer in Moscow." Not true by a long shot. Just three taps, but all top notch: Krusovice Pale and Dark and the rare Schöfferhofer Helles Hefeweizen. (Oddly, one of the taps was marked with the Staropramen logo, but Krusovice Pale was hooked up to it. Whatever.) I tried everything they had: all came in the appropriate logo glassware, and were served in good condition at the right temperature. The menu was good, albeit a bit pricey for such a small place in a very residential neighborhood. My wife's eggplant salad was outstanding. I think I just found my local watering hole!