AN ARMENIAN ENCLAVE
By Nathan Toohey
Staff Writer
The Moscow Times, Russia
Dec 4 2006
Photo: Leopard-skin prints decorate the main dining room in Yerevan.
Restaurants like Yerevan are a rarity in central Moscow these days.
Fully occupying a modern five-story mansion, the place is huge;
its description of itself as a cultural and entertainment restaurant
complex is no exaggeration.
There’s a banquet hall seating 180, a main dining room for 80, and
private rooms seating 30, 25 and eight diners. It even has a casino
section, some hotel rooms and a parking lot.
As soon as you walk in, you feel like you’re in an Armenian community
club, thanks to the number of Armenian speakers waiting by the
foyer’s elevator.
This was not always an Armenian restaurant, however. Until recently,
the restaurant was called U Lyovy and was a Serbian grill house.
Given the size of the place, its changing focus to a larger diaspora
seems to have been a smart move, and the full tables on a recent
Friday night would seem to confirm this.
In the main dining room, U Lyovy’s tame pastels are gone; the new
faux leopard-skin chairs and columns, mirrors and sentimental songs
by a male soloist add up to an atmosphere akin to that of a provincial
hotel banquet hall.
Although some Armenian cuisine is available, the menu also features
some Georgian dishes plus all the Russian banquet hall favorites, such
as olivye salad and borshch. The house specialty salad, "U Lyovy,"
(300 rubles) seems to be of this genre, resembling a mayonnaisey
mimosa salad with salmon.
Fried aveluk (200 rubles), a classic Armenian dish made from the
dried aveluk herb fried with nuts and spices, is a tasty highlight.
Another national dish, ishkhan khorovats (270 rubles) is a grilled
ishkhan trout endemic to Armenia’s Lake Sevan.
The Alanskiye khachapuri (230 rubles) — Ossetian pie filled with a
mixture of cheese and mashed potato — is lighter and no less tasty
than the Georgian varieties, which are also on the menu.
The Armenian wine selection is substantial and starts at 700 rubles
for a bottle.
While the service is attentive, it gives a poor impression at the
end when the waiter doesn’t return any change — especially when a
5 percent service charge has already been added to the bill.
2 Ul. Shabolovka, Bldg. 1, 237-5000, 24 hours, M. Oktyabrskaya.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
