Drink & Dranik: Where to eat and drink in Minsk

Arriving on a Saturday morning flight, you will get a full day in the city, you should not save money and waste time choosing a regular bus. Yes, only 5 BYN (approx. ed. – hereinafter “Belarusian rubles”), – about 150 rubles. – but more than an hour on the way to the bus station. Uber works great in Minsk: the cost of a trip to the center from the airport will be 30–40 BYN, and around the city – 5–9 BYN.

Now let’s start looking for local food and try to figure it out how potato pancakes differ from sorcerers… There are many restaurants of national cuisine in the city, but this is the danger of running into a purely tourist place without beauty in the moment and quality in food.

For a gastronomic immersion in Belarusian cuisine, a worthwhile option would be “Kuhmistr”
(Karl Marx str., 40). The interior is not without stereotypes, but on the other hand own tinctures, a voluminous menu that includes all the culinary hits of Belarus: dumplings, a variety of meat delicacies and the already mentioned potato pancakes that deserve a separate ode. The dish is simple, but for some reason it is often poorly cooked, then the oils and fried are too much, then on the contrary – there is porridge inside.

IN Faces Coffee Club (Independence Avenue, 94) came up with a set: a latte with homemade salted caramel, a specialty cheesecake with peanuts and two vegan sweets, Coffee&Croissant (Leningradskaya, d. 1) – Mattoo Voodoo coffee in a skull with tonka beans under a nut meringue with Candle Voodoo raspberry dessert. These two coffee houses became winners in the “popular vote”, as well as Wake up Coffee… In general, Independence Avenue should be renamed into Coffee – the concentration of this drink is too high per square meter.

A few more addresses: art coffee house “White suitcase” (house 43), Coffee gallery (house 18) and charming space “Poems, coffee, kisses” (house 19). Previously, it was a bookstore with a spiral staircase near the legendary Lakomka cafe. On sixteen square meters, seventeen-year-old Eva Pekurova, taking money from her parents, opened a coffee shop with three concepts. “Coffee” – a bar counter where cappuccino (2.5 BYN), flat white (3.5 BYN), cocoa (3 BYN) are brewed, “Poems” – an installation of books and lavender on the wall, as well as creative poetry evenings, “Kisses” – kissing can be done both with branded lip-shaped caps and with someone pleasant and animated.

They love not only coffee, but also just a drink in Minsk. A great aperitif is available at the speakeasy bar “Bootlegger” (street Komsomolskaya, 18). First, to get into the basement of a pre-revolutionary building, you had to call a secret number: its last digits are encrypted in the word alcohol, and then enter through the flower shop and knock. It turned out to be too difficult a game, so from the street, the bar is now visible on the stickers on the pipe, and an illuminated advertisement was placed near the entrance. Bar of the Prohibition era: behind the counter there are handsome guys in hats with the code names Silent (girls, attention, we sit closer to the bar), Rich and, of course, the Boss. Recommended ordering is Barbara (gin, barberry, sparkling) in an elegant bowl, Irishman’s Liver (whiskey and homemade stout syrup) and Vertinsky (banana rum, licorice bitter and lemon juice). However, the title “The Last of the First” promises a lot.

If you want to spend dinner elegantly, then you need to go to “Foam days” (12 Komsomolskaya st.) – a new restaurant based on the famous film with Audrey Tautou and the less popular book by Boris Vian. The caption on the laconic menu reads: “The most real story, written from start to finish”… The chef composes gastronomic surrealism on the plates, brilliant in its simplicity and flavor overtones. “Tartarars” salmon on buckwheat chips with pickled cucumber, venison with goat cheese and dried cranberries drowned in gin, beef based on Georgian cuisine and “Madmen on bread” with eel under parmesan crust and fresh mushrooms.

It is worth trying oat orzo with chestnuts, pastrami and mustard foam (19 BYN) and beef steak with demiglas and mashed potatoes (27 BYN). For dessert – a delicious honey cake “Not like your mother’s” or a cake “The Story of a Log”, whatever that means.

Exactly opposite the National Art Museum is a bookstore “Gogol’s Dream”
(Lenin st., 15). As you know, the most important pleasure of misanthropes and melancholic people is the gripping plot of the book accompanied by a perfectly brewed espresso. Here you can find both, and also a false fireplace, where instead of living fire – garlands, fantasy postcards with collage-portraits of artists, directors, writers. The drinks menu is funny and tender – handwritten as follows: “We brew excellent Brazilian bourbon roast kitchen coffee roasters, we brew natural English tea – it will dissolve leaves, blades of grass and dreams in a teapot “… Lovers of wanderings and spices are invited to try jazz improvisation on the theme of masala tea – spicy milk tea. Time here flows slowly and viscously, like in a dream, and I really don’t want this dream to end.

Modern Minsk without classicism, Art Nouveau and clear lines will be found in an easy distance from the city center on Oktyabrskaya Street, here the old factory was turned into a graffiti museum… Brazilian artist Ramon Martins set a record – as part of a street art festival Vulica Brasil he created the world’s largest mural, which is registered in the Guinness Book of Records. Drawing area 3 456 m² dedicated to the protection of endangered animal species. Art is not limited to the world of animals, there are Frida Kahlo on the walls, Belarusian fairy tales and heroes of pop culture. The impression is colossal!

Oktyabrskaya is considered a street food street: there are restaurants and food trucks on both sides, but it is better to turn into an arch into the courtyard and find Underdog.Pizzaplace (Oktyabrskaya, 23 a). In the Cambridge dictionary, the word Underdog is explained as follows: when outsiders win happily, but no one expected. The main menu includes pizza and sparkling wine from 9 to 16 BYN per glass. Pizza is baked on wood, it turns out a luxury: thick edges, thoroughly burnt dough with fancy fillings like blue cheese and walnuts (11 BYN), oyster mushroom with broccoli (13 BYN), four cheeses with an interesting composition for 13 BYN and salmon – shrimps for 16 BYN. Bubbles are also of different styles – cava and prosecco, lambrusco and cremana.