Mari Vanna

Lace curtains greet you from the doorway, welcoming bagels wrap around the samovar, and a cuckoo clock chimes welcomingly.

A restaurant dedicated to Russian comfort, Mari Vanna operates in Moscow, London, Baku, and New York, but first opened ten years ago in St. Petersburg. From Lenin Street, Mari Vanna moved to Mytninskaya Embankment and now overlooks Hare Island and Strelka. The interior was designed by Megre Interiors: screens draped in Pavlovsky Posad shawls compete in nostalgia with retro buffets and signs of a bygone era—typewriters. Mari Vanna offers seating on the balcony, a downstairs dining room, and two separate rooms for intimate gatherings—the Fireplace Room and the Dining Room. Under the soft light pouring from under the hand-knitted lampshades, you want to settle into a chair next to a collection of Chekhov's works, reminisce about your childhood...

...And have a snack. They serve home-cooked meals, the kind our mothers and grandmothers used to make for us: Olivier salad with veal, hearty jellied meat, golden-brown pies with veal heart, and green cabbage soup with chicken. They bake blini—thin wheat ones and fluffy Guryev ones, with buckwheat porridge and liver or crab, plus sturgeon, pike, and exotic eggplant caviar. Banquets are thrown—with suckling pig, sterlet stuffed with smoked salmon, whole baked pike perch served with horseradish, and right there—salted saffron milk caps, Olyutor herring, and a frosted crystal shot glass. Behind a secret door lies a specialty: the Secret Room, with a truly Leningrad ambiance. Here, you can delve into the history of Russia's distinctive drinking culture, as all the secrets of making homemade moonshine and liqueurs are revealed. The room also hosts intimate "kitchen get-togethers" to drink and enjoy delicious snacks from secret reserves: sprats, lard, pickles, and much more. Everyone is looking for a national idea, and they've already found it at the Mari Vanna restaurant. All you need to do is receive a personal key, which is given here to friends—public and political figures, famous athletes, show business stars, and, of course, regular guests. This key will open the door to any Mari Vanna restaurant—in New York or London, Moscow or St. Petersburg. The Mayor of New York already has a personal key to the doors and heart of Mari Vanna.