St.Pete's 13 hottest new places

In the evening, you will hardly find a seat in this Israeli place – a free table sounds like a miracle. Local falafel is to blame. Even competitors admit it's one of the best in town. They also have really good hot pita baked on the spot, original cocktails with halva and pomegranate juice and a perfect atmosphere. The place is loud, noisy and very cozy. A curly Judith-faced waitress is dancing around, a slim boy informs the visitors about Israeli appetizers joining them at their table and a mustached bartender is always smiling and mixing drinks according to his own recipes. The menu is all classics: shakshouka for breakfast and huge shawarma for dinner. If you came with friends take their sets served with pita. And with your coffee order the real rose water and dates: chefs tried their best to recreate the taste of their childhood. But beware – the food is calorie-loaded while alcohol doesn't come cheap, like in Israel, so the place is 100 percent authentic.

Vosstaniya Street is gradually becoming the drinking neighborhood: it's hard to get out of the area sober. A new Khroniki bar neighbor is Redrum beer bar. Its owners are fed up with regular low-ceiling-dark-wood pub and made a well-lit laconic venue that looks more like a cafe than a bar that offers 40 kinds of beer. It’s perfect for a date. Bartenders are always eager to help with the choice – they all love their job and are ready to share love to beer, but be ready to know your preferences. Or pick up any name in the menu you like, this could be fun. With the beer you can take their smørrebrød – it would be enough to feed two moderately hungry girls.

Is this the place? That's the first thought that pops in your mind when you climb the stairs to Tipplers. As it often happens in St.Pete bars, at first the place is packed with the owner's friends and pals who make for earnings, so everybody more or less knows one another and is wary and curious about newcomers. Don't worry: bartenders strive for new customers and will be super welcoming – in five minutes you'll be chatting about your fave drinks like best pals. The place's trademark is serving – you'll get your cocktail in glass jars, measuring glasses, iron tins and with fire cones. If you are frank with the bartender for 350 RUR you’ll get a dream cocktail and spend the night by the iron(brutal as owners call it) bar counter talking all possible themes.

Local saying "ujti v farsh" means to get wasted but with the opening of this new place it gets another meaning. Farsh is the Russian for minced meat and here they offer homemade sausages with various sauces. The choice is impressive: from classical pork and beef sausages (210 roubles) to fine options with curry and harissa paste, liver and tails (240 RUR) They even have a vegetarian option with chickpea, carrot and jalapeno.
The local pride is 30 taps with thoroughly selected beer: Russian craft, Bavarian and Belgian, fruit and cidres. The serving (0,33-04 l) costs from 150 to 250 RUR. They also have bottled beer.
Better come with your friends to watch a game and take cash – cards are no accepted.

Books, coffee and kisses, says a writing on the wall. And we can add: a maze of bookcases, crazy design and a very tangled menu. The place's trademark is pork ribs in honey sauce – for 790 RUR the meal will be renewed every 15 minutes. The offer looks great but even the hungriest are full after the first course. If you take the ribs away you can have a 50-percent discount on the wine. They have a new menu every two weeks, so forget about basil panna cotta with tomato jam you loved last week, it's time for a signature cake (a recipe of some theater critic – Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater is right across the street). It is an ideal place for a date with someone smart and witty to talk literature and enjoy sparkling wine.

Raw concrete walls, intentional asceticism and a live moth carpet – enough for a place to be called trendy. Their coffee is really great, both classic options and original stuff like pumpkin raf and alternative brewing methods. As for food, it 's all about original muffins: sweet with whole pear and filling with olives and tomato jam. If you are really hungry, take a cream soup, croissants with fillings and a good hearty breakfast with perfect scrambled eggs.

The place is hard to find so follow our tips: right across the bridge, under the arch, the door is in the wall or you will be lost forever around Fontanka River searching for this tiny cozy place. The owners made it Asian plus wine. The menu is original and wine selection is good (prices start from 190 roubles per glass and you can find a bottle for 1,100) The food is really good: take chicken chips if you plan a long talk, tom yum if you need to warm up, a passion fruit dessert with chocolate balls for a date. The place is a real dating mecca: 80% of visitors are couples. And every St.Pete hipster has a selfie in their vanity light mirror.

This drinking establishment moved from Architektor creative hub to St.Pete's new drinking mecca in Zhukovsky Street. The concept is still the same: extravagant ideally mixed cocktails, however, in a more posh atmosphere. Thus, the bar's logo decorates ice in the Old Fashioned and though it melts in three minutes, you'll be impressed. The menu has some original fantasies: homemade oats syrup, Caucasian oak sherry and green tea and lime foam. The drinks are served with broccoli, pop corn and other crazy stuff that seems not to go with them at all. The interior is typical decadence and eternal darkness which together with spotlights makes it really intimate and everyone look good. Add a cocktail and you have all chances for a date.

The place with a signature name (Spring is coming) opened together with Pryanosti and Radosti (both are Ginza projects): the first floor is taken by the bar and the second – by the restaurant. Go upstairs if you are really hungry and are ready for a huge 500-rouble shawarma. If you know what financial crisis means, stay downstairs and have some wine (100 roubles per glass). However, the place doesn't look informal and the menu has both 1,000 rouble-a bottle wines and those six times more expensive. But the food is simple: various tapas – mini-pkhali, potatoes and herring – not much but this place is for drinking and talking not eating. Prices are petty – 20 roubles a starter so take them all at once not to bother the waiter asking for more.

Any justification for a bar charging 400-500 roubles per a glass wine in times of crisis? Location and atmosphere and Bar 8 boasts both. It opened in the famous round tower in the Petrogradskaya Storona and joined a few decent places in the neighborhood. Historical interiors were preserved: white walls and ancient bas-reliefs, huge windows with a perfect view and old plafond. The rest is done by candles and charming frequenters who are all really nice. It feels like a Parisian cafe or the early 20th century club with jazz, wine and twinkling female laughter. The food is limited to pates and olives but the place is more about aesthetics and a good company.