Party Like a Russian: Quiet Weekend Sparked with Live Jazz in a Secret Bar
New Year festivities are slowly becoming a distant memory, while office hours are the quite palpable reality. The morale hits all-year lows, everyone’s idea of a good weekend is that of one spent in bed. All the more reason to pull yourself together and hit a bar. Start on Thursday with Bianki – a small three-person live jazz-band performing in Mendeleev Bar.
It is one of those ‘secret’ bars everyone and their mother knows about. Still the bouncer will act surprised asking ‘Where do you think you’re going, sir?’ in order to check if you will in turn be dumbfound by the question. Well, you should not be: the entrance is right there, at the far end of the Lucky Noodles shop. Turn right, through the curtains, down the staircase and you’re inside of one of Moscow’s finest cocktail establishments. Vintage oak furniture, rhinestone glasses, metallic skulls et al. Only die-hard patrons will be in presence, and with their occasional counterparts neglecting to come, they will be tempted to overlook differences in native languages and have long, soulbaring dialogs with foreigners they are seeing for the first time. Interactions of that kind help you understand local life and feel at home in a different country, even if you are leaving on the very next day. However, if that is not the case, your friendly friendly neighbourhood Noor Bar has a remarkable weekend programme. Highest point? – Black Lenin’s funk- and R&B-filled set on late Saturday hours. Be sure not to miss it.
