Bar and buffet Nikolay

Nikolay is the small cozy bar buffet with 18 types of pies in the menu and shelves with rum from all over the world. I met the owner Kirill and asked him a few questions.

Why pie is the main course in Nikolay?
I worked as a bartender for many years and dreamed of opening my own bar. My mom baked delicious pies and wanted to open a buffet. So we combined our ideas and opened this bar-buffet. By the way, bar-buffet is a very rare type of restaurants in Moscow.

I’ve noticed a lot of different rums on the shelf…
Rum is my favorite drink. I like pure dark rum… The point is that people in Moscow think that rum always should be mixed with coke. And we’re trying to suggest people to understand the different variations of the rum.

What can you recommend to a Frenchman?
It’s very individual. Traditional Russian cabbage pie is very popular and loved by many guests. We cook using old recipes, but also create our own recipes of pies. For example, we cook a pie with tomato, eggplant, sweet pepper and cheese.

I see a lot of portraits of famous Nikolay’s actors, artists, writers here. Which Nikolay did you name your bar-buffet after?
It was Nikolay Andreevich Peregoudov the outstanding cello player and my grandfather. I’ve created the design of bar-buffet by myself: It is all natural and simple: wooden tables and chairs, tubs with real grass are located on window sills, green walls with illustrations. We tried to create a quiet and relaxing atmosphere. Many young people, local elders and businessmen like to visit our place.

Do you organize any events?
Actually, no. But there are a lot of guests with children on weekends, so usually it becomes a little bit noisy. We deliver pies to the office or home. It’s desirable that customers make orders the day before. It takes 4 hours to make a pie because it is done by hand. In this case, you get exactly the pie you want and always on time. Of course you can make an order right away, but you’d have to choose from current set of pies keeping in mind the traffic.

Reason to visit: A perfect place to feel the quiet, relaxed atmosphere and to try traditional Russian pie. Prices in the menu are pretty low, 60 -100 rubles per pie. Meat pie – 100 rubles per piece, Spinach & cheese 125 gr – 80 rub, Cream cheese pie 125 gr — 60 rub, 90 rubles Americano coffee, Milkshake with Cookies 300 ml — 120 rub.

Bartenders speak English, Accept credit cards. Smoking area is well ventilated and separated from the non-smokers.
How to visit:
From Novokuznetskaya metro station go to Pyatnitskaya, 53. It takes 15 min.
Find the sign “Николай” with the illustration of a pie. Go upstairs. Open the door and you will see the bar counter with many pies. Chose one, two, three…