What to see besides the Hermitage? Which clusters to visit after “New Holland”? Where to go for brunch? What new bars have opened? This guide includes your favorite places St. Petersburg team Beat Weekend, so that you spend your holidays in St. Petersburg almost like locals.
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Mood: go on a tour of the bookstores
We proclaim bookstores as a new attraction of St. Petersburg. Our favorites are “Subscription Editions” on Liteiny Prospekt, “Everyone is Free” on Nekrasova Street and “Bridge” on the Moika River embankment. Get ready to be lost in them for a couple of hours.
Subscriptions sell books about David Bowie, Michael Jordan, Moby. “Everyone is Free” specializes in non-fiction about the underground and memoirs of counterculture heroes like Laurent Garnier. The Bridge has a lot of photogenic spots and books about art: for example, a collection of Polaroids of Andy Warhol with Grace Jones on the cover.
Wood: find Maxim Ima’s graffiti
Maxim Ima is a star of St. Petersburg street art and the hero of the Beat Weekend film “Cracks”. Ima’s works are an irony of artists and a reflection of reality. All this results in inscriptions in the spirit of “Sorry, but these are the times: if you are a poor artist, then you are not an artist,” “Art is a mass market. And I’m in it at the bottom of the basket with the inscription “Liquidation.” But you, by the way, are not a bestseller” and surreal drawings.
Most of Ima’s graffiti are painted over, but a couple of works can still be found: for example, in the Museum of Art of St. Petersburg on the embankment of the Griboyedov Canal (a drawing of a woman with a harp that looks like a spinner) and on the facade of the Teorema management company on Sverdlovskaya embankment (commercial order).
Wood: explore Lenpoligrafmash
Lenpoligrafmash is a charming constructivist cluster on Petrogradka. In the distant past, space equipment was produced here for Yuri Gagarin, and now there are cafes, showrooms and co-working spaces. It’s delicious everywhere, you won’t leave empty-handed either.
Futura bistro has amazing baked goods. Fika – vegan bowls and pasta. Coffee3 – hand brew paradise. It’s also worth going to Homies – a store of slippers for indoors and outdoors in the spirit of Martin Margiela, buying a Khrushchev lamp in the Anokhinnikita Store and watching a modern performance in the space Zal 3.
Mood: plunge into retro chic
“Aurora” is a luxurious old cinema on Nevsky Prospekt, which has been operating since 1913. One of the key Beat Weekend venues in St. Petersburg. From the outside it looks miniature, but inside there is a spacious foyer and two halls decorated with frescoes, pilasters, stucco molding, gilding and statues of ancient gods.
The repertoire includes both mainstream films and current festival cinema from all over the world. Special love – Irina Borisovna Arakelova and Valentina Panteleimonovna Voronova, who have been running the main affairs at Aurora for many years and helping us make the festival.
Mood: elegant bar-hopping
We love St. Petersburg, not least because of the excellent bars. Songs, legends and memes are written about them, and establishments regularly appear in top international ratings. A fresh opening on Liteiny Prospekt is the aperitif bar Tagliatella Caffe, which was created by the award-winning El Copitas team. It has Italian motifs, people love the cocktail negroni and only women work.
Ossi is a piece of Berlin on Nekrasova Street: local artists, activists and journalists may be at the next table. “Masts” on Sevkabel is the best place to admire the view of the bay: we drank liters of champagne here during the festival parties.
Mud: try unusual desserts
Aster is the quintessence of everything that people in St. Petersburg love so much for: a cafe with breakfast. From the moment it opened on Mayakovskaya and until now it’s been difficult to get there, and we understand why. There is a pleasant vibe, good food and coffee. Book a table in advance, order cheesecakes with coconut cream, a sandwich with caviar and raf.
“Birds” is a coffee shop and pastry shop on the embankment of the Griboyedov Canal. They make desserts that are even a pity to eat. Hit – candies of almost jewelry work, named after famous film figures. Such as like Fellini.
Studio 212 is a dog-friendly coffee shop on 6th Krasnoarmeyskaya. Grab a filter, a raspberry and parmesan cheesecake and sit back in one of the designer chairs. Here you can also look through fashion and art magazines from around the world.
Mood: buy records
“Culture” is the place of power for music lovers in the Berthold Center. They sell vinyl records and cassettes. The emphasis is on modern Western musicians and independent Russian artists. Come here to put together a playlist for your Studio 54 themed house party.
And also in “Culture” there are constantly broadcasts of the independent online radio Test FM. We love testers dearly and often invite them to be speakers at our film screenings. Residents of Test FM will present the film “Laurent Garnier: Electroshock” at Beat Weekend.
Mood: sit on all the sofas in “Izich”
Izich is a soulful club on the territory of the Arsenal plant. The vibe is reminiscent of a large apartment, furnished with finds from Avito: sofas, vintage lamps, velvet curtains, Soviet thermoses and even a billiard table.
“Izich” is not tied to any one genre: one day only techno plays here, the next – punk, the third – hip-hop. The closing party of Beat Weekend will be held here. If there is not enough dancing in Izich, go check out Ugly. This is a completely new club on the Kozhevennaya Line. There are a lot of good parties with a fresh look at music on Vasilyevsky Island.
