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A popular bohemian club that is guaranteed to be packed with media and artistic types at almost any hour, it has an unusual dacha-like creative design. Hosts poetry readings, folk concerts and art shows. In theory you need to be a club member to get in after mid-evening, but they’re quite flexible about this if they’re not already full. A warren of small rooms offers the chance to sit near the live music or away from it if you prefer. One room even has an old bath in it.
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A major music venue, largely featuring purely rock (as opposed to pop) bands. The venue is entirely the wrong shape for a rock club—a sequence of long narrow rooms with the band performing in the far one, completely out of sight for most people in the club. Vaguely groovy decor and quite friendly staff, the food is good and astonishingly cheap. The body frisk when entering the club seems more rigorous than is necessary, however.
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Doug & Marty were the team originally behind The Hungry Duck (which has closed, in case you were looking—that other thing using the name is a fake). The Boarhouse is a large Cheers-style bar, the favoured watering-hole of expats in Moscow. Wednesdays is expat night. Actually every night is, but on Wednesdays the happy hour means free beer until 9pm. Only one thing seems missing from this picture—ladies of the night. But they usually rock up from around 11pm onwards. Live music quite often. The same team are behind the new Hard Rock Café project.
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Karma Bar is probably your best bet as a dance venue in Moscow. It’s calm and relaxed with a face-control policy not enforced by gorillas, and with a progressive music policy that most people can get on with. Widely liked by local Russians, this is not a foreign visitor ghetto like some others. A relatively low prostitute quotient, which is a rarity.
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Primarily a music venue that also serves food. The joke is that you’re located in what used to be Moscow’s medieval Chinatown, and the restaurant is supposed to be where a Chinese airman (Kitaisky Lyotchik) landed on the first non-stop flight from Beijing. The whole story, of course, is a fake. You can order the food, but if or when they will finally serve it to you seems to depend on who else comes in, and whether they are more famous than you are. Music policy is legendarily progressive and it’s rare to hear a poor gig here, but you can’t say the same for the food.
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This is a jazz club where the music takes centre stage. Run by veteran saxophonist Igor Buttman, Le Club regularly hosts live shows by the world’s great jazz musicians. However, be warned that they turn the lights out entirely during sets, so you can’t get served at your table while the music is playing, nor can you even see what’s on your plate. Butman himself appears with his band on Mondays. Unusually for a jazz club, the food is varied and edible. There is a strangely cavernous atmosphere to the place, probably due to the stone walls.
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“Do it tonight” has been Night Flight’s slogan for years. This is a nightclub organised almost exclusively for visiting foreign businessmen to meet Russian girls. In fact, as a place for dancing it’s severely limited—the dance floor itself is tiny, so if you actually want to dance, this might not be your best choice. Unusually for a nightclub, the food is actually quite good and not stratospherically priced. A foreign passport will usually sail you in, but no jeans, trainers or sportswear.
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OGI is an artist’s collective of mainly 80s figures who have gone into the café business. Both branches listed above (there are seven OGI outlets altogether) are basement venues that combine student-style cheap and filling food with coffee, low-priced beer, and live music most nights. The two branches listed also have bohemian bookstores (mainly Russian) in them. Tretyakovsky Proezd is otherwise nose-to-tail upscale boutique shops, so it’s a puzzle how OGI fits into that world. It’s one of the few budget places to eat or drink within 150 metres of Red Square.
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A popular dancing venue with some of city’s best house and techno DJs. The place is always packed and it may be difficult to get in on certain days. Face control is notoriously fickle and random at this club.
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This luxurious India-themed dance club, complete with traditional art and furniture, may be a bit over the top for some, but it retains its popularity with the city’s young and rich. [open]s a courtyard during the summer. Very strict face control.
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