"Bourdain joins his old traveling companion Zamir Gotta on a weeklong tour of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Traveling on the eve of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi—months before Russia would annex Crimea and a year before dissident Boris Nemtsov was killed—Bourdain drinks and dines with dissidents, artists, and former oligarchs, all of whom have felt the effects of Putin’s increasingly autocratic government. Nearly 100 years after the October Revolution ended imperial rule, just how much has changed in Russia?"
Лофт Проект Этажи
Observation deck · Malaya Okhta
Tony met with Xena Robrek, an openly gay artist and filmmaker, and Darya Tarasova, a local fixer and translator at this club to have drinks.
PARTS UNKNOWN
COCOCO Bistro
Permanently Closed
Bourdain ate: rye bread with Russian fish, pearl barley, and lightly smoked raw beef topped with quail egg Dinner dates: Sergey Shnurov and Matilda Shnurova, co-owners of Cococo, and Zamir Gotta
pARTS UNKNOWN
Russia
8 Places
"Bourdain joins his old traveling companion Zamir Gotta on a weeklong tour of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Traveling on the eve of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi—months before Russia would annex Crimea and a year before dissident Boris Nemtsov was killed—Bourdain drinks and dines with dissidents, artists, and former oligarchs, all of whom have felt the effects of Putin’s increasingly autocratic government. Nearly 100 years after the October Revolution ended imperial rule, just how much has changed in Russia?"
Hotel Metropol Moscow
Hotel
Tony met up with Zamir and ate Astrakhan caviar, salted cucumber with honey, Baltic sprat with beetroot, muksun (white fish with maldon salt), and vodka (of course).
KU: Рамен Изакая Бар
Restaurant
Tony and Zamir had a meal with Boris Nemtsov, one of the main critics of Putin, who served as an advisor under Yeltsin (he has since been assassinated in 2015, and this restaurant is now closed).
Rublevskoye shosse, 91 корпус 4
Tony met with Alexander Lebedev, businessman and owner of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, at his home. They had fresh potato chips and Scottish salmon with cherry-tree sawdust.
16 Tons Club
Bar
Tony had drinks with Travis Link, manager of punk rock band Louna, and Rouben Kazariyan.
Kazansky railway station
Train station
Tony and Zamir took the luxury Grand Express train from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Aboard the train, they had blini with caviar and cold pickled herring, and vodka.
Лофт Проект Этажи
Observation deck
Tony met with Xena Robrek, an openly gay artist and filmmaker, and Darya Tarasova, a local fixer and translator at this club to have drinks.
COCOCO Bistro
Permanently closed
Bourdain ate: rye bread with Russian fish, pearl barley, and lightly smoked raw beef topped with quail egg Dinner dates: Sergey Shnurov and Matilda Shnurova, co-owners of Cococo, and Zamir Gotta
Peter and Paul Fortress
Fortress
Former site of a fortress built to protect the city from marauding Swedes, it was taken over by Bolshevik rebels.
