BlackBook

With life expectancy actually on the decline in Moscow, the importation of a bit of health consciousness has an air of exigency about it. Vegetarian cuisine pioneer Ruth Tal’s Fresh Restaurants, which have become Meccas in Toronto for the non-carnivorous (and those just taking a break from meat-eating), have gone international with Fresh Restaurant, this new location amidst the shopping mania of Moscow's Tverskaya. 

After several waves of invasions of Occidental luxury brands, both Moscow and Saint Petersburg have been steadily cultivating a more indie fashion scene to counter the mega-brand hegemony. To wit, new women and menswear boutique Physika carries buzzy independent Russian designers like Chistova Endourova, Damir Doma, and Sophia Kokosolaki alongside Superfine, Lucien Pellat-Finet, and those titans of the avant-garde Vivienne Westwood and Maison Martin Margiela.

In the zeigeisty matter of cities with the most expensive hotel rates in the world, Moscow handily outdoes #'s two and three, Geneva and Hong Kong, topping each by more than 30%. So it's likely only a rather mind-boggling bureaucracy that keeps a new hotel from opening every other day. Thankfully, the new Intercontinental Moscow Tverskaya eschews the monolithic glitz of many of the city's luxe hotels, forwarding instead a sort of "grand boutique" conception.

After a decade in exile, the InterContinental has returned to the former Soviet Union. The InterContinental Moscow Tverskaya opened yesterday, and is centrally located on Russia’s most famous street, minutes from the Kremlin and Red Square (as well as the Bolshoi Theater and TSUM, for the shoppers among us), making it an ideal base for both business and leisure travelers.

If you haven't heard by now, Russians have a lot of money. More than you, and definitely more than me. So when I asked for suggestions for a cool lunch spot in Moscow, I wasn't surprised that Cafe Pushkin and Turandot, two of the city's most enduringly popular - and expensive - restaurants were consistently included in the running. An average meal at either begins at about $150 per person, even for lunch. Just off Pushkin Square, the restaurants are on the same block, but with two totally different atmospheres. Because I wasn't going to return to the area for the rest of my visit, I had to choose just one. My instincts said Cafe Pushkin, as it's more universally known and has history, but my love for the Baroque period won me over, and I went with Turandot.

There's an old, abandoned chocolate factory (not this one) that's becoming the place to go in Moscow. Taking up the corner of a small island, Red October is a compact compilation of red-painted buildings that's home to a handful of nightclubs, a few bars, a design store, and even a boutique hotel, all just a fifteen-minute stroll from Red Square. During the day, Red October looks something like Brooklyn's DUMBO, but undeniably feels more Meatpacking District at night. I reckon it has something to do with the industrial backdrop of warehouses, smoke billowing from pipes, and the flooding of people on cobblestone streets. But Red October is much cooler than the MePa, mostly because it's Moscow. Ask any hip local about nightlife and they'll more than likely send you this way. In fact, I've never had so many people in a city of 12 million recommend the same bar to me (Solyanka). Like rock n' roll? Head to Rolling Stones bar. Want upscale and fancy? It's at Rai. Red October kind of has it all.

Crazy forest fires infiltrated Moscow with suffocating smoke this past summer in what I like to call the Great Russian Smoke Out. Seeking refuge was a bitch, considering most apartments have poor ventilation systems, not to mention the weather was a record-breaking summer of scorch. So it was no surprise that everyone in the city—at least the ones who have money—took cover at the Radisson Royal Moscow, which had just opened a couple months before the smoke devoured the city.

Until last night, the closest thing to ballet I'd experienced was Billy Elliot. Not that I completely dislike ballet - it just doesn't interest me. I like rock shows, dive bars, horror movies. Guy stuff. But when my friend Kate, who's traveling with me in Moscow, started jonesing for some authentic Russian tutu, I found myself being dragged into the world of dance. I have to admit, I was a little curious. Being reasonably open-minded, I thought I might learn something. And if all else failed, I figured it'd be the perfect opportunity to take a quick nap before our big night out.

You would think the first thing I would do upon arriving in Moscow would be to head straight for the Kremlin, see Lenin's tomb. But I had something a bit different in mind, albeit no less Russian: vodka. Blame it on the cold weather. In any case, I wanted to immerse myself in the boozy culture, but going to any random bar I happened across wasn't really on my agenda. In fact, I was warned by several friends who had visited the country that the city's "hipster-ish, indie rockish" bars are actually pretty scary. My intuition told me to go dabble in a new trend, Russia's emerging cocktail scene. It turns out bartenders in fancier spots actually speak English and like tourists.

There's good news and bad news. And more bad news. The bad news is that my Transaero overnight flight from JFK to Moscow was delayed five hours. We didn't board until 1:45 am. The good news, for me, was that I was upgraded. Way upgraded - to first class. My first first-class experience ever. (The flight was basically empty - I counted the business-class seats: 5 out of 60 were occupied.) The other bad news? Because we departed so late, I was asleep for most of my first first-class adventure. But I put up a good fight to experience some of the amenities on Transaero, a Russian airline that launched a direct-service flight from JFK to Moscow on October 29th. Transaero also made waves this month by introducing the first-ever direct Miami-Moscow service. So I was eager to see what the airline was all about - and a little bit nervous about my first trip to the Motherland.