Meat markets

ARMADILLO
1 Khrustalny Per.
(down the road from St. Basil's)
Metro: Kitai Gorod
Tel: 293-3553
Hours: 5 p.m. to 6 a.m.,
weekends noon to 6 a.m.
Cover: 100 rubles for men,
50 rubles for women (weekends only)

Located smack dab in the center of Moscow, Armadillo is a relatively cheap place to hang out any day of the week. Unfortunately, most do come here to hang out and are either in couples or in groups, making it rather hard to pick up someone. You will have to wait forever for one their cheesy pool tables. Can only order at the bar, making it slow and burdensome.

BELLS
51a Bolshaya Polyanka Ul.
Metro: Dobryninskaya
Tel: 951-4900
Hours: noon to 6 a.m.
Cover: 100 rubles for men,
50 rubles for women,
free for Americans with passports

In many ways, this is the quintessential Russian club with loud and crappy music, a tiny dance floor with plenty of hot women, and lots of menacing guys in black leather – a nice balance of danger and excitement. It has quite a few regulars, including expats. Many consider Bells one of the easiest pickup places, mostly due to a large number of students from the city's outskirts. The service is slow, and beers start at 50 rubles a half-liter.

Cabana
4 Raushkaya Naberezhnaya
Metro: Tretyakovskaya
Tel: 238-5006 / 5017

Home of the famous black
male-stripper, Dillon,
who once showed some
Duma deputies how to
"liven it up" with his contemporary dance performance to the Soviet
national anthem. See him on Tuesdays
and Fridays, when women get champagne and vodka for free!
Mixed cocktails will set you back $7
to $8, but the happy hour
is a marathon length from 6 p.m.
to 10 p.m. with 50 percent discounts.

DOUG AND MARTY'S
BOAR HOUSE
26 Zemlyanoy Val
Metro: Kurskaya
Tel: 917-0150
Hours: noon – 6 a.m.;
till 9 a.m. on weekends
Cover: 65 rubles

Former "Chesterfield" is one of the oldest foreign bars in Moscow and claims to be the home away from home for many expats. Tuesday Latin nights are some of the best in town, featuring quality live bands and multiple take-home opportunities. The weekend crowd primarily consists of expats in their 30s and 40s, hip Russians and cheap-looking whores some of which never ask for money. The event calendar is tight with live music and sports, including the NFL, British soccer and rugby internationals.

HIPPOPOTAM
5/1 Mantulinskaya Ul.
(behind the Santa Fe restaurant)
Metro: Ulitsa 1905 Goda
Tel: 256-2327
Hours: 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Wed. – Sun.
Cover: 80 rubles for guys, 40 for gals

Hippo has been revitalized by Lina and Lisa, who used to staff Papa John's. With more changes coming, it is already a hafta-go-to place. Appeals to hip expat types and young Russian girls, resulting in multiple mergers of the above. Both food and drinks are rather cheap, i.e., beers start at $2, while cocktail specials go for $3. It's located on a slow street, meaning that taxi drivers will want you to pay a fortune.
LETUCHAYA MYSH
33 Povarskaya Ul.
Metro: Barrikadnaya
Tel: 290-4489
Hours: 11 p.m. – 6 a.m.
Thu. – Sun.
Cover: 70 rubles

A former gay club turned
straight that has now become the gathering place for many of Moscow's blacks, Russians and 15-year-old wannabes from the Caucasus. Hip-hop is the only kind of music played and that's what their patrons come for. If you hang out by the entrance for awhile, you are guaranteed to see at least a couple of fights that security won't care about.

LVINOE SERTSE
Leninsky Prospect 88
Metro: Leninsky prospect
Tel: 298-6247
Cover: none, face control
does not admit the casual
12 a.m. - 5 a.m. Tuesday - Sunday

Located way out in the
tundraland of Leninsky Prospect, Lvinoe Sertse, or, "Lion Heart" is definitely on the unusual side. It's probably the only King Arthur type club in the Russian capital, with numerous suits of armor, heraldic shields, old English lettering and a lot of big (and real) wooden tables. This is a place to go to when you don't want to wear jeans and t-shirts, and you don't mind bumping into harmless well-dressed Mafia-types and prostitutes trolling the bar. But even if the decor is unusual, the music certainly isn't. The dance floor is surrounded by tables and full of exhibitionists and other dance enthusiasts enjoying the DJ'd Western and Russian pop. Cocktails are moderately priced at 64 – 148 rubles each and the club had a large and expensive wine list.

MOOSEHEAD
54 Bolshaya Polyanka
Metro: Dobryninskaya
Tel: 209-5020
Hours: noon to 5 a.m.
weekends till 10 a.m.
Cover: None

Will remind you of a bar
back home you used to go to with your buddies. Looks and feels totally Canadian, including well-priced drinks, ignorant bartenders, bored clientele and a comfortable atmosphere. This year's anniversary party proved that the Moosehead has run out of the momentum that manager Doug Steele has originally given it.

Mesto Vstrechi
(Meeting Place)
9/8 Maly Gnizdnikovsky Per.Building 7
Metro: Tverskaya
Tel: 229-2373
Cover: 50 rubles
after 11:00 p.m. on Sat.

On Saturdays, representatives
of the great tradition of British pop music take the stage, and the disco rocks all night long. Thursdays are set aside for jazz.
The club regularly has different theme nights and other events like the recent party in honor of Hemingway's 100th birthday. Naturally, entrance to such events is by invitation only, for you wannabe freeloaders.

Orakul
Bozhestvennoi
Butylki
1/13 Sredneovchinnikovski Per.
Metro: Novokuznetskaya
Tel: 953-0556
8 p.m. – when the
last customer leaves
Cover: 60 rubles
on live music nights, free otherwise
Fashioned in a trendy woodsy style, the interior resembles an ancient, Irish log cabin furnished for a big feast. Incredibly cozy and stylish. The place reeks of bohemia, packed with emancipated femme students and their young middle-class admirers. A beer is 30 rubles.
Papa john's
22 Myasnitskaya Ul.
Metro: Chistye Prudy
Tel: 755-9554
Cover: 50 rubles for ladies,
150 for gents
(Fri. and Sat. only)

Remains one of Moscow's wildest clubs with its multiple crazy contests, quality music, and a many hotties. Weekends pack in young Russians and a mix of expats that party like rock stars until the morning. Cuban bartenders serve a wide choice of drinks, quite pricey at $3-5 per beer, and $4-10 per cocktail. Their food will taste even better if you make it there for the 6-8 p.m. daily 50% off happy hour. Neil, their chief ideologist and head Papa, has quit again, leaving his children without guidance, possibly ending the era of BJ's at PJ's.

PLANET
HOLLYWOOD
23b Krasnaya Presnya
Metro: Ulitsa 1905 Goda
Tel: 255-0539
Hours: 10 p.m. till the last customer
Cover: $10 upstairs,
$4 downstairs on weekends (guys only)

The rumor that Elijah has taken over turned out to be true, meaning that we should expect an increase of babe activity here. Incorporates three separate clubs: discos upstairs and in the basement, and a strip club. The remodeled dancefloor would look better if anyone was there. Their upstairs prices for food and drinks will make the cheaper ones of you prefer starvation and dehydration.

SPORTS BAR
10 Novy Arbat
Metro: Arbatskaya
Tel: 290-4311
Hours: noon to 6 a.m.
Cover: 100 rubles for men

Do not let the name or
the layout make you think that
it is one of those sports bars back home. It does have a couple of 14" TVs showing Eurosport, but that's about it. Chances are you will see more nudity than anything else. Weekends boast quite a few women and none of them are here to watch football. There is a new Japanese menu.

TAXMAN
6 Krymsky Val (in the central House
of Artists)
Metro: Park Kultury
Tel: 238-0864
Hours: noon to 6 a.m.
Cover: 80 rubles

A Hungry Duck wannabe
that has most of the Duck's characteristics: naked girls dancing on the bar, men with not flat but concave heads and trashed floors. But if you have seen the original thang, this will only make you recall the good ol' days. It will take forever to get a drink, unless you go to the upstairs bar, where everything costs twice as much! The coat check is located by the restrooms, and since you will have to wait there too, better bring your gas mask.

UNCLE SAM'S CAFE
18 Myasnitskaya Ul.
Metro: Chistye Prudy
Tel: 923-3744
Hours: Disco open Thu.-Sun. 8 p.m. –
5 a.m. Restaurant – noon to 5 a.m. daily.
Cover: None

This quasi-American bar caters to beer-gut-toting hecks right out of Oklahoma and Russian 16-year-olds. The brightly-lit upstairs restaurant has some reasonably priced authentic American food, which may impress a date from the provinces. "Britney Spears meets Ricky Martin" defines the musical selection.
UTKA/DUCK
(former Hungry Duck)
9 Pushechnaya Ul.
Metro: Kuznetsky Most
Tel: 923-6158
Hours: 7 p.m. – 6 a.m.
Cover: 120 – 150 rubles

This remake of what used to be the most famous bar in Russia is back on track. Once again, weekends are full of half-naked, available teenies eager to go home with you. Tuesday Ladies' Nights are also recommended. Patrons often carry a "used" tag, but are ready for more action. Square-faced mafia types often indulge in brutal altercations, without much interference by the security. Crappy draft beer goes for 70 rubles a plastic half-liter glass.

VERMEL
4/5 Raushskaya Naberezhnaya
Metro: Tretyakovskaya
Tel: 959-3303
Hours: noon to 5 a.m.
Cover: 50 rubles

Be careful or you'll be swept
away when everyone starts
running in circles and kicking
the air when they play the song "Zorba the Greek." This snuggly little club could be a great place to take a first date because of its mixed bag of tunes and quiet corners to chat in while you're taking a breather from the dancefloor. Or it could be a pain, if you are over 6 foot and do not watch out for low headroom doorways. The young, good-looking crowd is mostly Russian with a few expats. Artsy fartsy bohemian decor makes things relaxed and cozy. Beer is affordable at 50 rubles and up. Live music till midnight on Saturdays.

VOODOO LOUNGE
5/7 Sredny Tishinsky Per.
Metro: Belorusskaya
Tel: 253-2323
Hours: 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Cover: 150 rubles for men,
50 for women

Ever since From Dusk Till
Dawn reopened under a new title and management, it has been packing in the crowds every weekend. High Latino music factor attracts Russian teenage gals, therefore making the place appealing to a variety of expat and Russian men seeking comfort at night. Two quiet rooms set aside for the restaurant let you do the talking while taking advantage of pretty good Mexican cuisine.Moderate prices make the main bar barely accessible, while service is rather slow.

Techno beat

Dance Hall MDM
28 Komsomolsky Pros.
(Moscow Palace of Youth)
Metro: Frunzenskaya
Tel: 245-8423
Cover: 50-75 rubles
(ordinary program) 200 rubles or more
(celebrity performance)

This is Moscow's biggest and
the most disgusting night club.
The main hall's interior changes with the arrival of each new party-host. One thing does not change – the huge dance floor which is continually overcrowded and dominated by thugs. Those who are not gorilla-types are scared off to the restrooms, cloakroom or lobby. The VIP area is more often than not populated by people who are far from ‘very important.'
No dress code. Everybody is admitted, except those who are very drunk. MDM is a very cheap place, hence the attraction to teenagers.
Parties are normally held on Sundays from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., summertimes on Fridays and Saturdays.

Garage
15/2 Tverskaya Ul.
Metro: Pushkinskaya
Tel: 209-1848
Around the clock
Major credit
cards accepted
Look for the tail end of a pink
Cadillac over a metal door.
Super-hip interior with all sorts of car and garagey stuff.
DJs from Moscow's hippest radio stations spin a variety of music with an emphasis on house. Often crowded on weekend nights, usually relaxing during the day, and always ultra-cool in the wee hours.
Half liters of Sibirskaya Korona or shots of Smirnoff cost 70 rubles each at the two bars.
The cozy restaurant offers good late-night fare, like Beavis and Butthead nachos (120 rubles) and chicken wings (200 rubles), as well as nice entrees, such as chicken curry (160 rubles).

Gramophone
3 Pushechnaya Ul.
(enter through
the arch beside the Burda Moden store)
Friday and Saturday
from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m.
Cover: $5

This club is very reminiscent
of its parent, Propaganda, although Gramophone does not feature chill-outs hanging from the ceiling where you can watch the dancing, nor does it offer much by way of food. A bar occupies one of the club's three areas offering beers for 60 rubles, vodkas for 50 rubles and whiskeys for 75 rubles. Another two areas accommodate a chill-out room and a dance floor.

LEXX
2 Taganskaya Ul.
Metro: Taganskaya
Tel: 912-9187
Hours: 10 a.m. – 6 a.m.
Cover: None

Located in one of those "
mini-mall" kiosk-type buildings, this is one of the hippest techno clubs in town. It boasts a spacey, but rather cozy layout. The first floor offers inexpensive Russo-European cuisine with super small portions. The second floor is a small dancefloor with some beautiful women. The doormen actually try to keep the flatheads out, meaning that a lot of females are without their bandit keepers.

PROPAGANDA
7 Bolshoi Zlatoustinsky Per.
Metro: Kitai Gorod
Tel: 924-5732
Hours: noon to last customer,
weekends till 6 a.m.
Cover: 60 rubles on Fri.
and Sat. after 10 p.m.

Thursday nights here bring in the hippest, smartest crowd in Moscow dancing to the tunes of visiting British DJs. If you can make it to the dancefloor, chances are high that you will find yourself face-to-face with several single females. Some patrons can behave way "too smart". The bar is cheap, but slow and impossible to get to, while food is basically non-existent.

Striptease and more

SIRIUS
10 Strastnoy Bulv.
Metro: Chekhovskaya
Tel: 924-8726
Hours: 6 p.m. – 6 a.m.
Cover: 150 rubles

Their new American manager i
s working on making this strip club the top expat-oriented erotic gentleman's club in Moscow. It is still in transition, but that may be a good thing for prices are low. Despite its strip atmosphere, the prostitute factor is low. Their clientele mostly consists of older expat men and their very tall dates. To see the show, you have to pay another 600 rubles to get into their "Monica Lewinsky Cigar Room."

Live music

A-Club
1 Sadovo-Karetnaya Ul.
Metro: Mayakovskaya
Tel: 972-1132
Fri. & Sat. 9 p.m. – 6 a.m.
Cover: none for club members, 1
00 rubles for others

Initially an exclusive artsy club,
the A-Club has lost most of its bohemian crowd and become a fairly mainstream place in the past six months. The face control has accordingly become much more democratic. Has two stories, three reasonably priced bars, a large dance-floor, pool tables, a chill-out room with avant-garde walls and two TVs playing music channels. DJs treat the crowd of prevailingly average Europeans and middle-class Russians to some good-quality house.

B.B. King
4/2 Sadovaya-Samotyochnaya Ul.
Metro: Mayakovskaya
Tel: 299-8206
Until 2 a.m. on weekdays and until
the last client leaves on weekends
Cover: none on weekdays,
50 rubles on Thu. & Fri.

B.B. King caters to a respectable,
older crowd interested in good food (dinner around 500 rubles) and good blues or rock 'n roll. Stylish interior, walls decorated with photos and autographs of Russian and Western blues greats. Afro-Russian cloak-room attendants support the blues style. Live concerts every Thursday; special parties on Fridays (beach party, Latino music party, etc). Other days, it's open as a regular restaurant. Beers for 50 to 100 rubles. Discounts on drinks between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays.
The only drawbacks are the tiny dancing space and the absence of a parking lot.

BUNKER
12 Tverskaya Ul.
Metro: Pushkinskaya
Tel: 200-1506
Hours: always open
Cover: up to 80 rubles,
depends on the band
One of the most popular live music
bars featuring daily concerts by bands of varied quality and style. It boasts some of the cheapest prices in town making it actually possible to eat without destroying your budget, but it means that the crowd is low budget as well. This is definitely not a pickup place. When the bands are not performing, DJs play a mix of techno and pop. The karaoke room by the coat check might make you have a nervous breakdown before you even get to the dancefloor.

DIAMOND
5 Stramynsky Per.
Metro: Sokolniki
Tel:269-9615
Tue.-Sun. 6 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Cover: 50 rubles to 80 rubles, or 30 rubles
to 50 rubles with a flyer

One of the cheapest and loosest
rock-clubs in Moscow, Diamond occupies a two-story building and has a concert room with some pretty bad acoustics, a bar with Baltika beer for 15 to 22 rubles, hot snacks for 10 to 40 rubles, a pool table and the dirtiest WC in the city.
The interior is dark and obscure, though it goes well with the fluorescent-painted walls. Diamond is a favorite start-up place for new rock, punk and grunge-bands, though it occasionally hosts celebrities like Time Out or Va-Bank. The crowd is young and alternative, from punks and metal-heads to rockabillies to bikers.

Four Rooms
4 Raushskaya Naberezhnaya
Metro: Tretyakovskaya
no credit cards;
no metal detector
Music: funk, hip-hop, jazz,
house (mixed) LOUD
Each of the four rooms has a different ecor. Room No. 1 is dark and loud and disco-balled; room No. 2 is a small, blue wine cellar with a bar; room No. 3 is a cozy dining room; and room No. 4, ladies and gentlemen, has billiards — for 35 rubles an hour, and at lunchtime, for the amazing price of 10 rubles an hour!

Krizis Zhanra
4 Bolshoi Vlasievsky Per.
Metro: Kropotkinskaya
Tel: 241-1928
noon-midnight
Cover: none

This place's reputation of a
sophisticated retro keller for
intellectuals has not faded despite dozens of later replicas. The crowd is still refined and pacific, the music is still good, the room is still tiny, and the management and bouncers are still friendly. Food is cheap (35 to 100 rubles), unlike the drinks (beer ranging from 45 to 100 rubles).

LE CLUB
20 Radishchevskaya
Metro: Taganskaya
Tel: 915-1042
Hours: noon till 2 a.m.,
weekends till 5 a.m.
Cover: depends on the
band, around 100 rubles
Moscow's premier live jazz/blues/
rock'n'roll joint offers daily concerts by top bands like the Igor Butman Band, which plays every Monday. Good place to socialize with your friends or just talk to your significant other over some great, but inexpensive food and great jazz. Nothing extraordinary ever happens here, and the pick up factor is low.

Oranzhevyi
Galstuk
55 Leninsky Prospekt
Metro: Leninsky Prospect
Tel: 135-9538
6 p.m. – 6 a.m.
Cover: none, except for
Fridays & Saturdays: 30 rubles
Nightly dance club with male
striptease Wednesdays & Thursdays, mixed striptease Fridays. Special dance shows Saturdays. Unlimited pop and house music unlimited. Beers 40 to 50 rubles, meals 80 rubles and up.

PARISIAN LIFE
3 Karetny Ryad
(in the Hermitage garden)
Metro: Chekhovskaya
Tel: 209-4524
Hours: restaurant noon
to 7 a.m.; bar 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.
Cover: 90 - 130 rubles Fri. and Sat.
Forget the name of the joint
and enjoy the live midnight performances by famous Russian bands like Chaif, Mango Mango, Moralny Kodeks, and others. That is, if you can find a place to stand. The place is often jam packed, and being a sardine becomes a tedious task after about five minutes. Drinks are cheap by Moscow standards, with beers starting at 40 rubles. On non-concert nights, disco parties sometimes feature a decent babe factor.

Fancy shmancy

CLUB XIII
13 Myasnitskaya Ul.
Metro: Chistye Prudy
Tel: 927-2391
Hours: 9 p.m.
to 6 a.m. Wed. – Sun.
Cover: 250 rubles

Located in a beautiful 19th
century mansion, this is one of the
fanciest clubs in Moscow. If you get past the picky face control, you will find yourself among an assortment of expat businessmen, Russian models and their flathead friends. Make sure to check out or, better yet, make use of their dark and comfortable chill-out room, featuring the largest pile of beanbags in town. Watch out, bar prices here along with high cover may deal your budget a fatal blow, while women with attitude may shred your self-esteem. Weekdays can be totally dead.

Embassy
Club
8/10 Bryusov Per.
Metro: Pushkinskaya
Tel: 229-7185

Drinks are expensive for the
average young and upwardly
mobile, but the snacks are
reasonably priced. Have a soup and drink it too. The jazz band is loud and mediocre.
You must sit face-to-face in couple-facing-couple arrangement with strangers blowing cigar smoke in your face or looking hungrily at your company. You can't help looking at the other guy's girl without putting tremendous strain on your neck and talking to your date at 180 degrees.
The kind of place that fat, rich Americans frequent, trying to impress young waitresses — and their Russian distributors — with their knowledge of cigars.
The service is polite, prompt and professional.

Kino
16 Olimpiisky Prospekt,
Olimpiisky Sports Arena
Metro: Prospekt Mira
Tel: 937-7872
7 p.m. - when the last client drops;
closed Sun.
Cover: none, except for live
music shows Mon. and Thu.:
free with club card, otherwise $30 — $40.

Easy to bump into Russian movie stars, but a half liter of Warsteiner for $7?! Maybe you're paying for the nifty cinema knick-knacks, like old movie cameras and Chaplin posters.

Quasi–Russian

ANGARA
19 Novy Arbat
Metro: Arbatskaya
Tel: 203-6936
Hours: always open
Cover: None

A typical cheesy European-disco-
wannabe with its share of bored
whores, flatheads, and beer-gut
Westerners. They brew their own beer (90 rubles), which is their only claim to fame, but even that fails to make the women look better, possibly because there is lack of them, period. Some of the world's worst bands play here, mostly sticking to late 80's – early 90's pop. The food here is pretty good, and not very pricey.

Beverly
Hills
1 Kudrinskaya Sq.
Metro: Barrikadnaya
Tel: 255-4013
Tuesday-Sunday; open 24 hours
Cover: None on eventless days;
150 rubles for females and 200 rubles
for males on concert days.

Fashioned in the Beverly Hills
style. Easy atmosphere, talk for uninhibited people. Beers & cocktails for $4. Euro-disco and modern rave, no rock or house. Live Russian jazz in the restaurant Thursday-Sunday. Male and female strippers. Casino.

CENTER
3 Kholodilny Per.
Metro: Tulskaya
Tel: 958-5887
12 p.m. – 12 a.m. weekdays,
10 a.m. – 6 a.m. weekends
Cover: 30 rubles on weekdays,
50 rubles on weekends
and holidays — before 9 p.m. Nightly
dancing 9 p.m. – 12 a.m. (11 p.m. – 6 a.m. weekends):
50 rubles for ladies,
80 rubles for gents.

Center is a huge sports and amusement complex with a skating rink, a Q-zar range, billiards, arcades, a bowling alley, four bars and a restaurant (dinner around 300 rubles per person). A separate, supervised playground for small children (40 rubles on weekdays, 50 rubles weekends) allows parents to leave their kids behind and go enjoy themselves.
The skating rink has a stage on the side and turns into a huge dance floor at night. Though the daytime Center is a customer-friendly children's world, its discos cater to Moscow's mass thug-with-little-black-purse audience and sometimes feature average pop singers onstage. High-quality lighting and a spacious floor are the disco's main advantages.

Cristal Night
Club and Casino
38 Marksistskaya Ulitsa
Metro: Marksistskaya
Tel: 912-3554
Casino: 24 HOURS
Club: Wed. to Sun. from 10 p.m.;
closed Mon. and Tues.
Cover: Casino, 240 rubles
(includes chips of that amount);
Club, 480 rubles (access to casino
and club included,
as are chips of that amount)

The place provides free drinks, free buffet and free taxi ride home once you drop.

Fellini's
16 Olimpiisky Pros.
Olimpiisky Sports Arena
Metro: Prospekt Mira
Tel: 974-2500
9 p.m. – 6 a.m.
Cover: 100 rubles for females,
150 rubles for males on regular nights,
around 500 rubles on special nights.

An expensive show and disco club.
Plays the latest pop music and offers concerts by Russian pop stars, plus special shows and presentations, including erotic shows. Beers 50 rubles and up. All
meant for big spenders. Hemingway-type loners and rock fans have no place in this part of town.

Golden Palace
15 3rd Yamskovo Polya
Metro: Belorusskaya
Tel: 212-3909/41
Cover: Men pay 250 rubles
before 8 p.m. and 500 rubles
afterward, which can
be exchanged for chips
This gilded palace is for
controllers of the means of production, roulette addicts, and expensive women in love with expensive bouquets and champagne. A man with a machine gun once showed our restaurant reviewer the exit in no uncertain terms when he tried to crash a party for Moscow's Svetskaya Lvitsa. Daily entertainment includes live pop and rock music, striptease and a disco. In the restaurant on the second floor (with a good view of the casino below), dinner costs around $50 and beer 80 to 95 rubles. Polite staff and toilets with bouquets of flowers produce a pleasant impression.
Free, AK-47 guarded parking.

Manhattan
Express
Varvarka Ul.
Hotel (northwestern
entrance)
Metro: Kitai-Gorod
Tel: 298-5354
Cover: 50-250 rubles
An outdated dance club packed with pop lovers and much honored by Russian pop stars. Unless you find a seat on one of the few settees or in a separate restaurant room, you've no choice but to dance or lean on the bar. Beers from 60 rubles and up. Cover depends on the popularity of the singer performing.
Niagara
55 Leninsky Pros.
Metro: Leninsky Pros.
Tel: 135-9538
6 p.m. - 6 a.m.
Cover: none, except for Fridays &
Saturdays: 30 rubles
Non-stop dancing club. Dancing
every night. Male striptease
Wednesdays & Thursdays, mixed striptease Fridays. Special dance shows Saturdays. Pop and house muzak unlimited.
Beers 40 to 50 rubles, meals 80 rubles
and up.

RIO
2 Kutuzovsky
Prospekt (The Ukraine Hotel)
Metro: Kievskaya
Cover: 100 rubles for women,
200 rubles for men
The name's a bit deceiving.
If you thought you were going
to dance the night away to some
great salsa, merengue or cumbia and rub elbows with the Latin American expat crowd, forget it.
This not-so-hot spot falls flat. Thumping techno music, suits, spandex, stilettos, expensive drinks and grimaces for anyone who shows up wearing natural fibers will have you searching for the door if flash isn't your thing. If it is, this is the place. Lots of space to spread out and dance because nobody's there. A beer will set you back
70 rubles or more and mixed drinks start
at 100 rubles. Because it's at the Ukraine Hotel, the taxis just outside will charge you an arm and a leg to get home.

Gay

CHANCE
11/15 Volochayevskaya Ul.
(in DK Serp I Molot, the left wing)
Metro: Ploshchad Ilyicha
Tel: 298-6247 (after 11 p.m.)
Daily from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m.
Cover: upto 140 rubles for men
and 160 rubles for women
Germany's Stern magazine
called Chance one of Russia's
best clubs. Since it opened in the early 90's as Moscow's first openly gay club,
Chance continues to be one of Moscow's oldest, and these days, most mainstream gay and bisexual clubs which openly welcomes clients of all sexual orientations.
With three dance floors, it is also
one of the largest.
And as far as shows go, it's remarkable
beautifully lit, indoor water tank
has some of the most original gay erotica
in the city that borderlines performance art. Stunningly choreographed erotic underwater ballet performances continue through the entire night.

CHAMELEON
14 Presnensky Val
Metro: Ulitsa 1905
Tel: 253-6343
Daily from 8 p.m. until 10 a.m.
Cover: Within 100 rubles

They call it a, "pure club" for,
"pure youth", and since it
opened two years ago, its
crowds remain extremely young
and decidedly uninhibited.
One of the most openly sexual of the gay club's with a sex shop in the entrance,
the sense of, "Wild East" hangs over all
of the Chameleon turning it into an open venue for Moscow's raging gay sexual revolution.
If you're not put off by the sign warning against pickpocketers, you can
lose yourself in a darkened, "Maze
of Lust" containing partitions, hurdles,
and groping hands.
Chameleon has two dance featuring
Russian pop and house music respectively, the latter which sports a stage
for professional, semi-clad dancers.
KAZARMA
(BARRACKS)
14 Presnensky Val
Metro: Ulitsa 1905
Tel: 253-6343
Open: Daily 10 p.m. until 8 a.m.
Women allowed on Tuesdays.
Cover: Around 100 rubles

As long as you're in
the Chameleon you
can check out another on-site
club within a club.
It sounds like something for military
men, but in fact Kazarma, or
"Barracks", located in the larger
Chameleon club, is a mixed bag
of erotic tricks. One of the city's
nicer gay clubs, albeit with some seedier bits, the club is now equally as popular as its parent Chameleon. For those not interested in clubbing, mini tv sets at the bar have an ongoing display of male erotica.
Then there's the continual male striptease for those eternally bored. There are dark chill out corners with various sofas, walls with spy holes, and well, you can guess the rest. Not for the faint hearted, or those looking to just relax and boogie.

Miscellaneous

Baskerville
Billiards Club
55 Leningradskoye Shosse
Metro: Vodny Stadion
Tel: 234-17901
2 p.m. – 5 a.m.
Cover: none

They say you don't have
to line up to play a game
of billiards here, even on a
Friday night (whatever that suggests).
There's a bar and restaurant —
with beers for $3 to $4 — plus an open terrace. It's located next to a bowling alley.
Offers live music free of charge, Thursday and Friday.

The Last Drop/Poslednyaya Kaplya
4 Strastnoy Bulvar
(through the arch)
Metro: Pushkinskaya
Tel: 292-7549/7681
11 a.m. — 6 a.m.
Cover: none

This relaxed bar with pool tables has a warm, apres-ski feel to it. The crowd here is a little more sophisticated and a little older than you get at nearby Bunker or Garage.
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the place gets hoppin' with live jazz, rock ‘n' roll or country. Good selection of draft beers includes Pilsner (85 rubles), Murphy's (100 rubles) and four kinds of Czech beer.
The classy restaurant serves food for cold climates: "Wings of the Soviets", or buffalo wings (150 rubles), "Silence of the Lambs" (300 rubles), and for youngsters in love with the world's most lovable screen piglet, "Babe" sausage
(150 rubles). Weekday business lunch
(98 rubles).

Monte Kristo
Billiards Club
4/2 Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad
Metro: Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad
Tel: 963-3768
24 HOURS
Cover: none

Offers billiards and pool tables. Russian billiards costs 180 rubles per hour at the table, one game of pool costs 25 rubles. There's a bar and restaurant, with beers
for 35 rubles and up and meals for 90 rubles and up.