This is a club that can be easily classified. Its nature is obvious to the eye. It is so obvious, in fact, that one short encounter with it will let you know if it's your kind of place or not. Even before you walk through the tall wooden doors of the solid Stalin-era building, you'll already know where you're heading: There was a sizeable traffic jam of sports cars and limousines outside the night I ventured into the club.

First, a quick explanation: This is a club geared toward Moscow's club-going upper class, but with a more European feel than was usual in previous years – without glitzy decorations or gold-o-mania.

Ministerstvo, which opened a few weeks ago, is striving to wedge itself into the niche represented by the Zeppelin and Most clubs. But Ministerstvo differs from them by not having a restaurant and concentrating solely on the dance side of things. Music-wise, the policy in the immediate future will be to move away from mainstream dance music, as one of the club's owners explained. The club can afford to invite popular DJs from various countries that it considers in line with its musical concept, as it already has done in the first few weeks.

The club's owners were previously involved in projects geared to a similar crowd – the famed Titanic and Bulgakov clubs popular in the mid-‘90s – and so the club's opening was widely talked about by Moscow club-goers. The first few weekends were virtually packed with strict face control doing what it could to not let the club get overcrowded. Designer suits, gelled hair, expensive perfume, leather jackets, leather couches, half-naked dancing women on little balconies, expensive cigars, a dim VIP room – that about sums the place up. Beers start at about $5, while other drinks all go for a higher price. The menu offers a rarity, absinthe, in addition to a hefty list of cigars.

By the way, face control will soon get even stricter, as the club plans on introducing its own club cards – a common practice among clubs of this kind.

The year of work put into the club did result in a few designer innovations. A soundproof glass wall leaves space for quiet talking, and a balcony above the dance floor allows for a good overview and an escape from the sweatier downstairs. However, the "something" that everyone comes out of Ministerstvo talking about is the one-way mirrors in the bathroom. The mirror faces the dance floor, of course, not the other way around. But still, as I said before, the nature of the place is obvious from the start.

MINISTERSTVO
24 Malaya Nikitskaya.
Metro: Barrikadnaya.
Tel: 222-0158.
Cover: None. Face control.
Hours: 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Thurs.- Sun.