Ruski's Caviar & Vodka Tavern
1a Kensington high st,
London
,
Having acquired the keys to this 120 year-old Russian Tavern through a set of strange and mysterious circumstances;
partners-in-crime Antoin Commane & Diego Bivero-Volpe are set to re-open this infamous St. Petersburg bar this Autumn in London's Royal Borough directly opposite Kensington Palace...
# Ruski's Tavern - A HISTORY
Nikolai Mavirusskyi was a General in the Imperial Russian Army. A proud soldier, he made a small fortune by way of his various campaigns in the south of Russia and through gifts from the Tsar; a grateful and personal friend of Nikolai's.
With his lifelong savings, he built an elegant Tsar Tavern (the name given to the world's first Vodka bars) just off Winter Square in St Petersburg, on a street behind the Tsar's famous Winter Palace, intended to be a meeting place for his fellow Russian elite.
The bar traded well and successfully attracted the upper echelons of Russian society, from military men to artists and aristocrats.
Sadly, General Mavirusskyi died several years later - defending his friend the Tsar from Lenin's “Soviet Revolutionâ€. The bar survived however, and his wife Maria, took charge, changing the name to “Marirusskyi's Tavern†in honour of her late husband.
Amazingly, the bar survived the next hundred years, continuing to be a meeting place for Russia's elite and providing a safe haven for them to meet, drink and debauch together.
120 years after opening, Ruski's Tavern (as it is affectionately now referred to), is owned by General Mavirusskyi's great grandson, Vladimir (currently in his 60's) who has let it slip into a state of slight disrepair, closing its doors and preferring to drink the famously wide selection of vodka on stock rather than to serve it.
On a wild (and drunken) night out, he meets Diego & Antoin and bets them the keys to his family's once beloved bar and loses.
Diego and Antoin go on search for their new bar, finding it in a dusty old basement, and vowing to return it to its former glory as the beautiful, fun and debauched hangout of those in the know.