Atelier tapas bar. Opening

In the middle of summer, the Atelier tapas bar opened on Lakhtinskaya Street, in the very center of the Petrogradskaya Side. The establishment in the Spanish style was opened by Mikhail Sokolov and Timur Dmitriev - the creators and main ideologists of the Italy Group holding, which is known for the network of good Italian restaurants Italy, beer establishments with Flemish cuisine and the flagship respectable restaurant Goose Goose. When opening the Atelier, the owners immediately announced that they would give the establishment broad autonomy (it’s not for nothing that the Barcelona flag greets visitors at the entrance), therefore they will not adhere to proven marketing strategies, but will engage in experiments.

The idea was definitely a success. “Atelier” turned out to be unlike any other establishment of the team, it seriously changed the balance of power on the Petrogradskaya side, and absorbed half a dozen gastro trends recent years and at the same time manages not to seem secondary. The Village talks about why Atelier is one of the most noteworthy projects of this year.

Great terrace, hooligan interior and homely atmosphere

The first reason why Atelier was recommended to each other this summer was not the food or wine at all, but the ideal terrace, located on a picturesque street a stone's throw from Bolshoy Prospekt. With the arrival of cold weather, the tables were removed, but the bar remains a decoration of the street - all this is due to the red awnings, plants placed at the entrance, candlesticks and garlands of simple light bulbs stretched over the entrance.

The design was carried out by professional designer Ksenia Smirnova (Tre Bicchieri, Big Wine Freaks, Una), thanks to her participation in the interior there appeared assorted furniture, the neon inscription “No bad days” and spectacular paintings on the walls, including a drawing of a palm tree, which became the symbol of the establishment, as well as a giant futuristic chandelier made of copper tubes and a cross-shaped common table that replaces the bar counter.

The main element of the hall is the open kitchen, which is visible from almost anywhere. Chefs work behind a low counter, decorated with jamon hams waiting in the wings, quietly instilling in visitors thoughts of home comfort and the simple joys of life. Only Eduard Muradyan in EM has so far been able to successfully reconstruct the atmosphere of a living space in a restaurant. The absence of any boundaries between waiters, cooks and visitors is further emphasized with the help of a bar island with a coffee machine located right in the middle of the hall, and racks with dishes and glasses, also placed in the dining area.

New formats: siesta, gastronomic tours and Sunday brunches

The idea of ​​an almost family establishment is not limited to creating an atmosphere, but also affects the work routine of the staff. At the Atelier, for example, they practice “siesta”: between four and six in the evening, only drinks and the simplest snacks are served, and those who are late with lunch are offered a choice of two types of soup. It seems like a small thing, but for the staff such a respite is an excellent help, allowing them to calmly prepare for the evening influx of guests.

Gastronomic tours of famous chefs are also organized here. For visitors, this is an opportunity, without leaving St. Petersburg, to get acquainted with the cuisine of trend-setting restaurants, and for chefs, it is a micro-internship that allows them to learn and gain experience. This fall, the Atelier hosted special dinners for important heroes of the Moscow gastronomic revolution, Vladimir Mukhin (White Rabbit) and Georgy Troyan (Northerners), as well as a collaboration dinner with the co-owner of the most successful St. Petersburg bar El copitas, Igor Zernov. The most recent innovation is Sunday brunch, designed as a kind of daytime party with cava, a variety of snacks and DJ sets.

Inventive food, small portions and a conceptual wine list

In terms of the format of the Atelier menu, it delicately balances on the verge of a wine bar with snacks and a modern gastrobistro. The choice is small, but varied: there is very traditional Spanish food - jamon (550–690 rubles), cheeses (280–350 rubles), padron peppers (190 rubles), corn soup (290 rubles) and black paella (450 rubles). And there are dishes invented by chef Ilya Burnasov specifically for the project, sometimes made according to Spanish patterns, and sometimes not. With rare exceptions, you can understand the menu without the help of waiters: the name of the dish often fully describes its essence.

From a rather spartan set of ingredients, wandering from section to section, Burnasov manages to do completely different things, forcing individual products to either take center stage or fade into the background. Here's an example: oyster mushrooms in pintxo with beef are the main element of the dish, but in spelt they give way to porcini mushrooms. The Crudo section with unusual meat tartars (270–290 rubles), shrimp and dorado ceviche (290–320 rubles) and oysters (250 rubles) deserves special attention. Most of the main dishes - eggplant with brie cheese, dorado with tomatoes and capers, scallops with beet cream, veal cheeks with zucchini - can be ordered in the format of miniature tapas (230–380 rubles), or as a full portion (340–550 rubles) , which, however, will also turn out to be quite small. An exception is dry-aged rib-eye steak: it is served in the right large piece, starting from 800 grams (from 3 thousand rubles) and is worth going for specially.

Andrey Ermishkin, a member of the Probka Family, is in charge of the wine list. Although he did not study to become a sommelier, he is a passionate person, so the selection he compiled turned out to be quite conceptual. Firstly, Atelier offers exclusively Old World wine. About half of the positions are classic traditional varieties from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Italy and Spain. The second half is organic and biodynamic from small garage farms. Do not hesitate to ask the waiters about the wines - they have something to tell about each one. The list of side items includes 10 wines (320–650 rubles), but there are also about a dozen varieties marked on the card with a special sign. If desired, they can also be opened and sold by the glass - the Atelier uses the Coravin system, so nothing will happen to the wine for a long time. Special emphasis is placed on cava - it is offered to six different types, there are simpler items (from 290 rubles per glass, or 1,740 rubles per bottle), and there are expensive aged brands, for example, Catalan biodynamic cava from a private garage (9,900 rubles), which is not inferior in quality to good champagne.

Mikhail Sokolov

co-owner of Atelier Tapas & Bar:

We had been looking at this room for a long time, we really liked it. True, when it was finally free and we came to look, it became clear that there would be enough electricity here for maximum light and ventilation. The only reasonable alternative was a Josper wood-burning grill. Ilya Burnasov and I went together to a factory located near Barcelona, ​​talked with local chefs - they showed us how to work with it. Around the same time, we came up with the idea of ​​creating a Spanish establishment. We went to San Sebastian, the most important city in Spain from a gastronomic point of view, visited a bunch of places with pintxos, and, I must say, the local food rather disappointed us. Pintxos and tapas are really prepared there on every corner, but, with rare exceptions, they are all terribly boring and tasteless - most often it’s just a piece of bread with jamon or sausage. Therefore, we decided for ourselves that we would make such “gourmet” pintxos.

Now I really want to teach guests to dine here. Many people perceive Atelier solely as a gastronomic bar, where they should come in the evening. On the one hand, this is true, but at the same time we understand that our lunches are really tasty, really cool. I myself come here and enjoy myself because I can eat not just salad and pasta, but for the same money try four original dishes at once.

By the way, for some time now we have been doing some really cool brunches. Every Sunday at 12:30 we lower the blinds, there is a DJ playing, the table is filled with cava, tacos, guacamole, pintxos, a variety of snacks. And you come here on a Sunday afternoon and feel like you never left. This Sunday, for example, I came here with my dad on the way to sports. I ate a taco and said: “Listen, dad, maybe to hell with this sport, let’s drink some cava and we won’t go anywhere.”

Tres lechos - 120 rubles

"Yes, yes, it's true, unfortunately", - admits the waitress Vlad. The thing is that after her descriptions, which are merciless to a hungry stomach, you come to the conclusion that you need to try everything, or almost everything, in an establishment called “Atelier”. However, this problem is easily solved: it’s not for nothing that the sign says: tapas&bar.

I will say directly and frankly: “Atelier” is located simply ideally: it seems that the bustling and glamorous Bolshoi Ave. PS is just two steps away, but you get the complete feeling that you are on the quietest European street. Why is not completely clear; the wall of the house with peeling yellow paint, some excessive riot of greenery according to the norms of the concrete jungle, cozy burgundy awnings, and even the pillows piled up in a careless heap on the bench in front of the entrance are both to blame for this. Judging by the stories, restaurateurs Mikhail Sokolov and Timur Dmitriev built the Atelier, if not entirely for themselves, then certainly for their own. And they even created a tapas bar separately from other projects of their holding company Italy Group.

Interior "Atelier" nothing special. The system-forming element of the decor is a bar counter in the shape of a cross, behind which almost half of the guests of the establishment can sit. Another crosspiece is attached to the ceiling - either a decorative chandelier, or a structure popularly known under the code name “chime of the wind.” It’s a pity that it’s absolutely calm here: it’s impossible to check whether the copper tubes are ringing. In the "Atelier" there are also ordinary, albeit very tiny, tables - some are wooden, some are marble, some are even copper. As in many establishments from much hotter countries, even during the day it is semi-dark, and the neon palm tree is responsible for creating a resort mood.

Having found the note “sope until 18:00” in the menu, you realize that the establishment does not hesitate to dictate its own rules to guests. However, one wonders, why stand on ceremony with your own people! Full list The rules turned out to be quite weighty. So, from 16:00 to 18:00, a siesta is announced in the Atelier, during which guests are invited to drink and consume snacks such as crushed olives (160 rubles), jamon (490–690 rubles per 40 g), Spanish cheeses (320) , pintxos (190–220) and those same soups (290–390). After six, everything is available to order (but with the exception of soups). And finally, on Mondays at the Atelier you can’t eat or drink anything at all, because it’s a day off.

Chef Ilya Burnasov came up with a small but clever menu. One of the main sections is crudo (190–380), that is, appetizers made from everything raw - meat, fish and vegetables. The prices seem ridiculous, but when you see the size of the saucer on which the appetizer is served, you realize that you can easily eat all the half a dozen appetizers in the assortment, and not even just once. And in the end the amount will be very decent.

All hot dishes at the Atelier are prepared in a josper; most of them can be ordered as either a hot appetizer or a main course. In any case, "Atelier" is an establishment not for eating, but for snacking. With one single exception - ribeye steak, for which the restaurant even installed a dry-aging chamber. The ribeyes here are very weighty (from 800 g), such a steak can only be overcome by a truly strong-willed guest.

The drinks list, like the menu, also takes up one page; a glass of wine at the Atelier will cost at least 270 rubles.

The drink made from kombucha gained popularity in St. Petersburg establishments after it began to be called kombucha in the American manner. At Atelier, kombucha is made from hibiscus, the result can be characterized by a pleonasm of “sourer than sour.” Indispensable in hot weather, but where are these sultry torments!

The Atelier kitchen, as they say, does not bother: appetizers, soup and hot dishes arrive at the table at the same time. One inevitably has to solve a philosophical question: what is more important - to eat hot food hot or cold food cold?

Sea bream with grapefruit should not be compared with ceviche: thanks to the delicate citrus dressing, the taste of the fish can be felt much better. But the idea of ​​a tomato appetizer with mango salsa remained unclear. You traditionally expect notes of chili pepper from salsa, but here it felt as if mango juice was simply splashed on the saucer along with half a tomato, and the flavor collaboration did not emerge in the end.

Pinchos, or rather pintxos (because the portion consists of one sandwich) with crab and manchego cheese cream, are served on a piece of toasted ciabatta. Tapas in the full sense of the word: one or two bites, but it's a nice one or two bites.

Crab and also avocado They are also added to local gazpacho. If I were the regular guests of the Atelier, I would be indignant at why this dish is only allowed to be eaten here during the day. And what could be better on a sweltering summer evening than ice-cold tomato soup!

The josper mainly cooks meat, but there is something here for vegetarians too. "Three Roots" (240-370) is an equal union of sweet potato, celery and parsnip with a demi-glace caramel sauce and cashew nuts. If you don’t mind the sweetness in a hot dish, it’s better to take a larger portion. Of all the steaks, the waitress recommends the machete (320–570) the most - and rightly so: the juicy meat goes well with the sweet potato puree.

For a wine bar with appetizers, which is what “Atelier” actually is, desserts are the most optional section. But this is not a reason to neglect the local tres leches.

The dessert is served like ice cream - in paper cups, and the sweet biscuit cubes, soaked in three types of milk, are supposed to be pulled out using wooden tongs. Sorry, the glass is small. But this is a tapas dessert!

It exists, and this is already a big plus

With the size of the establishment, they are all in the palm of your hand

I am writing belatedly, because illness, the abyss of unfinished work, and the autumn blues took me by surprise, and at the same time. But I’ve been officially happily married for 5 years now, and that’s all that warms me up during these vitamin-deficient times. By the way, on this occasion I finally got to the tapas bar, which is literally on the next street from me, and just across the street from my beloved BB. And this was almost a month ago (that’s how lazy I am ****).

I was in the former Beauty Cafe only once, and I was amazed how the format of the establishment could be so successfully mummified around the year two thousand and five. The current establishment is smaller, but every millimeter of space is used here. At the entrance, boxes with Panna and Pellegrina were neatly hidden behind a curtain; The doors are single, but there is no draft in the hall, although I was sitting directly with my back to the exit. In general, due to the absence of unnecessary distracting details, you can watch with interest the work of bartenders and cooks. However, other people's conversations can still be heard, and sometimes there is not enough space for both the guests and the owners of the place. These feelings, however, are true for seating at the bar, since this is the only place where five people can sit.

There was a lot of food on the table. And it won’t work any other way, since in order to get enough you need to literally swipe your finger diagonally across the menu when ordering. So what follows is short and to the point.

Croquettes with jamon

Good and satisfying, and the head of the ingredients, lying on its side in the refrigerator-display, gives hope for the authenticity of it in the dishes

Pinchos with crab

They scattered like pies (sorry for the stupid pun). Honestly, worthy.

Tuna tartare

Again: honestly, the tuna is great, but the overall appetizer is very basic in flavor. But I wanted emotions.

Shrimp ceviche

Not quite ceviche, in my opinion. The shrimp inside was completely raw - protein denaturation did not begin to feel like it.

Dorado and grapefruit

It’s not listed on the menu as ceviche, but my previous friend should learn from this: the dressing is delicate, but piquant. Great!

For main course, all the ladies, without exception, ordered crab and bisque - and everyone agreed that it was good. What else can you write about crab? He's either good or he's not. The rest is epithets.

Among the meat courses, we tried flank with chanterelles and machete with smoked sweet potato

The meat is excellent in both places; the sure-fire demi-glace does its job, but the main highlight is the smoked sweet potato puree: you just can’t stop, it’s a delight. Although personally, I sin on a good concentration of “liquid smoke” to achieve the effect.

None of the three desserts worked. But the wine is very much one of my favorite Matsu category “Boy” at a price quite reasonable for Russia, something like 2,300 rubles per bottle. Taking into account the fact that each appetizer was not ordered in a single copy (and the wine too, why hide it), the bill for a tapas bar of 20,000 seems something out of the ordinary. On the other hand, unnecessary contingents are eliminated, and with the rapid development of Petrograd snobbery, this is rather a plus.

The service is average, not at all familiar, but not swaggering either. Although in a tapas bar I would like to see guys with a more open soul. Opinions are purely my personal and are not reflected in the rating. Because such establishments are simply vital in order to keep Nerezinovsk ahead of the quantitative and qualitative competition of catering establishments. And the Italian group sets high standards, for which I respect them immensely.

Opening date - June 2017

It is becoming fashionable for restaurateurs to open establishments not only under the company’s umbrella, but also as an option. The authorship of the tapas bar in the area on Petrogradskaya belongs to the co-founders of the “Italy Group” Timur Dmitriev and Mikhail Sokolov. Who, on the quiet Lakhtinskaya Street, speak on their own behalf, and not on behalf of the entire group.

It is becoming fashionable for restaurateurs to open establishments not only under the company’s umbrella, but also as an option. The authorship of the tapas bar in the area on Petrogradskaya belongs to the co-founders of the “Italy Group” Timur Dmitriev and Mikhail Sokolov. Who, on the quiet Lakhtinskaya Street, speak on their own behalf, and not on behalf of the entire group.

In St. Petersburg, culinary layers are moving slowly. If you want to build a successful restaurant, open an Italian one, people will come for pasta and pizza, they won’t go anywhere, this reinforced concrete formula has been working since the 2000s, if not earlier. For a long, long time no one looked towards Middle Eastern cooking; shawarma was served with mayonnaise exclusively at street stalls. Only the fairy tale tells itself quickly, and now, years later, shawarma was appreciated not only by migrant workers, falafel also took root under shawarma. What can I say, edible symbols of distant Peru have reached us; ceviche is offered on every third menu. The fate of tapas in St. Petersburg is unclear and foggy. Although it would seem, drink and have a snack.

“Atelier tapas & bar” is a place where you can loosen your tie, or even do without it. This is obvious from the approach - small tables were placed on the street, with tubs of flowers between them, and blankets were laid out in artistic disorder. Inside the small hall there are also cacti, positive maxims that there are no bad days, and a diligent game of Spain. There is even a two-hour siesta, from four to six in the evening, but the doors are open. The menu is quite small and replete with Spanish, check what crudo, carne and verdudas mean with the local atelier. But in general, no translation difficulties are foreseen; the main thing is to understand that tapas is tapas.

Many, if not all, people call it tapas in their homeland. By and large, tapas is any food in a small portion, and this is exactly what is offered at Atelier. Somewhere in Andalusia, many tapas, from emerald olives to spicy peppers in escalibada, will be served free of charge to accompany a glass of wine; At Atelier you can buy tapas for money. Wine costs money too; Spain is primarily about cava and sherry; Spanish sparkling wine is offered from half a dozen positions - they ask for a glass from 290 rubles, for a bottle from 1450 rubles; The sherry is poured dry and sweet.

Tapas include guacomole with nachos, padron peppers, Spanish tortilla omelette, and artichokes. They offer four types of pintxos, this is a subtype of tapas on crispy ciabatta - with anchovies, jamon, crab. For some, a couple of tapas is already dinner; For more serious eaters, they prepare hot food - much, if not all, is served from the josper. Hot dishes include eggplant with taleggio, octopus with potatoes, and filet mignon with parsnips. The prices are not very high, but the portions are not huge, the tapas bar is a story where size does not matter. The microclimate and simplicity matter - the mango chili dessert is fresh mango sprinkled with chili. A little temperament wouldn't hurt the Petrograd side.

Quote from the menu:

It’s an amazing thing: the rules of the restaurant market are beginning to change, although just recently they seemed to have been carved in stone, almost Old Testament tablets. And almost everyone knows these rules, most often on an unconscious level.

Don't make yourself an idol other than the Ginza Project. Check out happy hours, promotions and discounts on business lunches. Thou shalt not commit adultery, but if Kuznya House and on Fridays, then to hell with it, you can. And further down the list.

Now that there is a strong fashion in Russia for author’s bright concepts, a rather interesting situation has happened: small and successful projects are multiplying their entities (de facto, gradually turning into mini-holdings), and large groups are trying to experiment with formats. Ginza now has powerful The Repa And Godji, in the kitchen Vinovniki a student is creating from ReCa, in the near future he will try to tear himself into three parts, according to the number of institutions - all this is, at least, intriguing.

In this wave, Italy Group stands out perhaps the most (and most successfully) of all. U and V Lately Almost everything works out: to create projects that are successful and understandable to the masses, to populate residential areas, to open establishments in the Leningrad region, and now - drum roll - to create places that are not associated with the “Italy Group” itself.

In the case of Atelier, such a move is completely justified: it is truly an original establishment. Which, despite the names of the owners and the brand chef who is familiar from the Italy Group, does not feel at all like part of the gigantic colossus of any holding. Just the opposite: “Atelier” is the most intimate, honest and damn right place. And it was made, most surprisingly, for people who really understand gastronomy. It’s no wonder that one of the first to give the new establishment a bright future was Dmitry Blinov.

The designation “Tapas&Bar” included in the name is justified by about 146 percent: after reading the menu, you want to: a) order almost everything, b) experiment with wine accompaniment, c) repeat the previous points. In addition, the number of servings and the very idea of ​​​​the dishes clearly contribute to this: bright tastes, unusual combinations and the rollicking precision of everything that happens - this whole story actually turns out not to be about Spain, but precisely about the sensations from it. Actually, these sensations are the fine line between original and mass: when on a plate you find not just a set of ingredients, but emotions.

Emotions, by the way, cost incredible amounts of money in the Atelier. If pintxos with beef, oyster mushrooms and oregano (190 rubles) is simply perceived as a great start, then a recipe with an impressive amount of crab and manchego cheese cream (220 rubles) is like clean water madness. And how generous, dumping and perhaps the best crab dish in the city in terms of price and quality. The same story with gazpacho (390 rubles), piercing and honest, and also with a subtle (but very gastronomic) game of periphrase of bisque with crab - crab with bisque (380 rubles).

Atelier successfully proves a simple truth: crudo is cool. Sea bream, balanced by the freshness of grapefruit and a bright citrus dressing (230 rubles), excellent quality tuna, discreetly but very elegantly complemented with cucumber and crushed bell pepper (320 rubles) or beef tartare with cabrales cheese (270 rubles) - almost every the dish here literally screams: “Brilliant is, in fact, simple.” Only very, very few people can achieve such simplicity. And it’s great that the “few” in this case are Ilya Burnasov.

Main courses offer two serving options - full and introductory. The move, in general, is also quite logical: it is always more interesting for a company to take a larger number of changes “on the table”, and people who want not to experiment can, with a clear conscience, eat one thing, but one that is significant. And, most importantly, everyone will be happy.

A definite hit in the “Verduras” (“vegetables” in Spanish) section is a dish with the honest name “Three Roots” (240/370 rubles). Celery, parsnips and sweet potatoes in tandem with caramel sauce with demi-glace and nuts is really the bomb. Because of which, in an amicable way, there should be a line of vegetarians lining up at the Atelier, and convinced meat eaters may well give up steaks (perhaps forever). Mushrooms with Jerusalem artichoke cream (220/350 rubles) could have been perceived better if not for the promise of the waiter, who promised only white mushrooms as mushrooms.

Octopus with potatoes (320/490 rubles) is perhaps the most understandable dish on the menu. Beautiful octopus, potatoes, restrainedly spicy sauce - some will find this recipe too simple, others (especially the female half of humanity) will like it, but no one can blame this dish for anything.

Machete (320/570 rubles) is almost standard. Excellent meat, smoked sweet potatoes, careful accompaniment of the sauce - this is the very case when it is impossible to even admit the thought that something needs to be added to the dish or, conversely, any ingredient needs to be removed. Everything is in its place.

If we leave aside the still very crude service (which, depending on the specific waiter, can range from restrainedly courteous to frankly indifferent), then “Atelier” really immediately became one of its kind in Petrogradka. A place where guests from neighboring countries can equally well come Italy, and from behind the counter Bolshoybar, and from . The main thing is to have the strength for a glass of cava and the desire to live truly brightly. Just like in Catalonia, only better.

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