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Down the road the equally famous Mariinsky Theatre, famed for its operatic performances, will soon benefit from a new 2,000 seat theatre designed by Canada’ s Diamond & Schmitt Architects. The new venue will be dedicated to modern performances and will compliment the lavish original venue and an adjacent Concert Hall opened in 2007.
From the Mikhailovsky, it’ s an easy walk to another hot spot located in the nearby Grand Palace luxury shopping mall. Here, Chaika, a unique concept restaurant, is turning heads and pleasing palates with its menu of simple yet elegant Soviet-era cuisine. A gastronomic map of the former Soviet Union, the restaurant is as much a celebration of the past as it is a bastion of the future; regular high-profile retro-themed events take place under the restaurant’ s vaulted ceilings, while intimate concerts are conducted beneath walls covered with propaganda posters and era-art. Waiters slip past a duo of Sovietmade scooters hidden under the mezzanine stairs as they serve the new generation the cuisine of their parents’. Make your caviar selection from a glass case located beneath shelves of USSR-made toys, Lenin busts and shimmering sickles, before ordering from a comprehensive menu that leans towards Georgian dishes, a favourite with all Russians. The kotmis satsivi, a Georgian-style chicken dish served with a walnut sauce, is stunning, as is the salmon tartar with caviar and sour cream; and the delicate pelmeni dumplings.
Only a couple of blocks away, city insiders walk off their meals with retail therapy at the Great Gostiny Dvor, the city’ s iconic and utterly-expansive department store. Not only is the Grand Gostiny the oldest retail centre in the city, it’ s regarded as the world’ s first shopping arcade and its yellow-hued arches, reaching towards the horizon, can’ t be missed. Building commenced in 1757 with elaborate designs by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, but a recent renovation has brought this unique retail setting into the 21st century and now countless boutiques and an extensive department store fill the cavernous space, drawing in a mink-clad crowd of affluent families and tourists from the luxury hotels of the city centre.
You’ ll also find the social set in the palmlined coffee lounge at the Elisseeff Emporium, further down Nevsky Prospekt, the city’ s most elegant thoroughfare. Originally built in 1902, this acclaimed department store was opened by the Elisseeff Brothers and the food hall on the ground floor is a mesmerizing showcase of all the luxury tipples and titbits the new
Giselle
Chaika
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