Cheers North East magazine #52 - July-August 2015

Page 14

VIEW FROM ABROAD: MOSCOW

THE BEST OF OLD TRAFFORD Lunch in a Manchester United supporters pub has Alastair Gilmour in raptures. But it’s in Moscow

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When you discover there’s a pub in Moscow with a framed cover of Cheers on the wall, what’s an editor to do but go and see it for himself? So we did. We had been invited to the Bobby Dazzler British-themed pub a year ago when its owner Alex Merenkov paid a visit to The Stables Brewery at Beamish Hall, County Durham, along with around 20 of his staff whom he treats to UK beer tours on an annual basis. On their way from Scotland they arranged a meeting with Stables brewer John Taylor – who brews a beer called Bobby Dazzler in homage to Sir Robert Shafto (Bonny Bobby Shafto) the former Durham MP who lived at Beamish Hall and is celebrated in nursery rhyme with “silver buckles on his knee”. “Come next year and see what we do,” said Alex. “Britishness is very popular in Russia; many people love England from learning about it at school. There are a lot of British traditions that people like.” The Cheers cover from June 2014 features a smiling Alex Aksenov, a popular sports journalist who happens to spend quite a bit of time in Bobby Dazzler, so now it sits in a gilt frame alongside footballers (Bobby Dazzler football fans are big on Manchester United) and dogs. Bobby, or Bobu, is a favoured name for a dog in Russia and one

features on the pub logo. I have to admit to some apprehension at heading for a sports bar which I imagined was lined with television screens and speakers and dripping with Man U regalia, selling beer I could get at home – particularly as our time in Moscow was tight. I was also concerned our hosts would sense my disappointment that the pub wasn’t quite Russian enough. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Sure, there’s a corner featuring Best and Charlton and Giggs and Scholes and red and white. There are a few modest flat screens, and founts dispensing Spitfire and Bishop’s Finger, but Bobby Dazzler is a bobby dazzler – a brilliant corner pub in a desirable city suburb that oozes ambience and friendliness. Alex Merenkov introduced us (John and Joanne Taylor and myself) to the pub chef, a German by the name of Adolf Becker whose forte is fusing culinary cultures. “It’s hard to get Russians to eat German and English dishes,” he said. “So what I do is English and German with a Russian twist.” He chuckled at his own ingenuity – in fact Adolf chuckles and smiles a lot. That kind of guy. A sharing platter of carpaccio was set down. The thinly sliced raw meat served with a bean and rocket salad was the appetizer we were looking for – along with our Fullers London


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Cheers North East magazine #52 - July-August 2015 by Offstone Publishing - Issuu