Now that I'm back in Russia, I've been looking for things to do and places to chill out since my visa is currently in the process of being renewed (this means I can't leave Russia until I receive my new visa).
Although my favorite place to surf the internet or hang out with friends is Starbucks, there are times when I find myself wanting to explore the city and see if I can find a small, local cafe with a welcoming atmosphere. This is probably in part due to my recent transformation into a 'foodie.'
Now if I were in the US, finding such a cafe would be easy because of the lack of a language barrier, but as this is Russia, the task is a little harder. On top of that, Russian customer service is usually non-existent. So finding a cafe that serves good coffee, provides wi-fi, has pleasant employees and is frequent by a decent number of people is quite a challenge. It's one that I've failed to overcome many times during my many 5+ kilometer walks around St. Petersburg.
While I'm sure that are numerous pleasant cafes located around this city of five million people, like I said, the language barrier makes it difficult to really get comfortable. In Starbucks, the language barrier is significantly reduced by the number of people who know some amount of English. Almost every time I visit, there's another person speaking English. Maybe not fluently, but they're at least practicing communication in English.
Starbucks also receives a lot of traffic, so I get that familiar sound of people going in and out of the cafe, giving credence to the 'coffee culture' I enjoyed for a time back in the US. Russia doesn't yet have a 'coffee culture,' but I think cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg are in the process of developing one, at least based on my observations.
Anyways, for the time being, the one non-Starbucks cafe I've found that has been consistently pleasant is the cafe at the Museum of Spice. It helps that my girlfriend works as a tour guide and store attendant for the museum, but considering that oftentimes she's too busy for long stretches of time and is unable to hang out all the time, the cafe has to be pleasant for me to spend more than a couple hours on any given day.
The Museum of Spice is a small, local business that started just a couple months ago and it contains a museum, a store and a cafe. Most people come in order to see the museum, but while they wait for the next excursion to start, they can enjoy a cup of coffee or tea with a piece of cake or a freshly-made waffle. Excursions, which are conducted every two hours, usually happen in Russian BUT they can be provided in English, depending on who is working that day. Afterwards, if people saw some spices that seemed particularly interesting, they can buy them at the spice shop.
Although I didn't understand everything that was said, I did go on the tour once (in Russian) and found it reasonably interesting. However, I do prefer spending my time in the cafe, drinking my fair share of coffee and enjoying the occasional snack. I've developed some basic friendships with several of the workers here. Consequently, we have a mutually beneficial relationship where I sometimes practice my Russian and they sometimes practice their English. Moreover, when I was in America, I provided some assistance by bringing back some typical spices and seasoning mixes from the North American continent. The original idea was for them to be able to provide a small exhibit on barbecue spices and rubs, but since I provided some samples of Cajun and Jerk seasoning, they can do a North American continent exhibit should they so wish.
The museum/cafe also organizes a monthly festival that highlights a country noted for its unique style of seasoning food. Two months ago, the theme was "Festival of India" while last month's theme was "Festival of China." This month's theme is "Festival of the Middle East."
Due to my past life as a journalist, I do feel as if I'm biased in highlighting the museum. But I wouldn't be helping it out in my free time if I didn't find it a pleasant place to spend my time. And as can be expected, the weekend is much busier than the middle of the week.
If you are in St. Petersburg for a time and you're interested in a quiet-ish cafe to spend a couple hours of downtime, it's a worthwhile place to visit. Who knows? You may even see me here.
As for food, if you'd like some food recommendations, I enjoyed:
- Chia pudding with berries.
- Chocolate balaklava
- Ricotta cheesecake
For more information, the museum's website can be found here. The website is in Russian, but if you're using Google Chrome like I do, it's easy enough to translate the webpages into English.
P.S. - I have found an excellent shawarma/doner place in St. Petersburg that I've never felt ill afterwards at. It's located on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Liteyney Avenue. There's no tables or places to sit since the cafe is small, but the shawarma is worth standing and eating.
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