Le Club Review
From Moscowiki
| Le Club |
Cuisine: Club food
Address: Verkhnaya Radishchevskaya ul., 21
Metro: Taganskaya
Tel: 915-1042
E-mail: info@le-club.ru
Web: www.le-club.ru
Open from 12:00 until 24:00.
All major credit cards are accepted.
Some like it hot.....
By Neil McGowan & Lena Parshina
Whether you like your jazz hot or cool, there's one thing you can rely on in any great jazz-joint anywhere in the world - lousy food. Ronnie Scott's prides itself on a menu that's not changed since 1983, I got food-poisoning in The Blue Note, and London's 100-Club is still serving microwave pizza slices on disposable paper plates whilst the world's jazz legends sock it out on stage. So when "Le Club" invited The Moscow Expat Site to review not the music, but the menu... we packed our bibs and tuckers, and motored on down to Taganka, unsure quite what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised...
Le Club is the brainchild of veteran Russian jazzman Igor Butmann - a man whose huge playing experience has afforded him experience of jazz-jives in jazz-dives all over the world. And let's not mince words here - music comes first at Le Club, there's no pussyfooting "lounge music" or music-students tinkling at Cole Porter in the background. The floor-plan is arranged so that all tables have a good view of the stage, and the purpose-built venue offers great acoustics... perhaps at the expense of cosy comfort. Since my accomplice's previous visit, they'd hung some attractive drapes into the ceiling-well, to soften the cavernous feeling very effectively. Much of the room is faced in glazed brick, but some jazz-inspired murals brighten many areas without being tacky. The absence of nicotine-stained b/w photos of performing artists known only to a tiny few is rather welcome, in fact. Lena observed that although smoking is permitted throughout the room, the air-conditioning and extraction is so well-designed (and silent!) that you couldn't smell smoke anywhere - even though neighbouring tables were puffing cigars cheerfully. The toilets break with jazz-club tradition too - a spiffy as you'd wish in a Swiss Private Hospital, although they're unisex, and perhaps few in number.
When eating at Le Club (which is by no means obligatory - many on neighbouring tables had only a drinks tab open) it-s advisable to get seated and ordered before the music kicks-in. Not only is the volume loud enough to make ordering an awkward business (and a bit annoying for music fans around you) but the house-lights go down during the set, leaving your food barely visible and the menu completely unreadable.
Come, let's overlook this establishment's Bill of Fare - and if you feared it was going to resemble Jake'n'Elwood's order at Matt's Blues Cafe ("four fried chickens, two slices of plain toast, and a coke") - then fear no longer, the french-style name of "Le Club" is there for a reason. International "jazz standards" feature on stage, and they're mirrored with a nice "set" of well-known hit numbers on the menu - with a little embellishment and improvisation on well-known standards, of course. Lena opted to start with the French Onion Soup (100 rbls) -a dish notoriously often served as a greasy stew. But out it came in succulent style, with a rich and thick soup topped with piping-hot grilled cheese. The consistency was excellent, although the delicate onion taste was masked by a strong perfume of Toulouse Sausage or Chorizo, which didn't feature in the menu-listing. The result was certainly successful, but might not be to everyone's taste. Being a bit of a veggie-burger myself, I'd decided to give the Lenten Fast Menu (Postnoe Menu) a try. The Passadsky Salad (150 rbls) looked dull, but in fact was a zesty mixture of vegetables, wild mushrooms and dried fruits.
On to the Mains, and Lena kept-up the Blues Brothers theme with a classic Chicago Steak (750 rbls), and asked for it 'medium'. Le Club obliged with a luscious tender cut, with a tiny ribbon of fat left on to ensure mouthwatering moistness. The sauce suffered from too much salt - with less it would have been nicer still. My own main course was Vegetable Fantasia (250 rbls) - stuffed tomatoes and courgettes, deliciously presented and much tastier than maybe they sound.
Lena's real life job is selecting accommodation and food for fussy foreign tour-groups, and she fancies herself as the Tiramisu Maven of Moscow. Le Club's Tiramisu (120 rbls) is a feast for the eyes and enough to feed an army - but Lena's caffeine detectors failed to register a score, and liquer content seemed low too. Once again my choice proved luckier - a Pan Cotta (160 rbls) that was robust and satisfying. Finished with excellent espresso, I emerged delighted, whilst Lena gave it 4 out of 5.
I was driving, and with some slightly expired car docs I stuck to grapefruit juice. Lena plunged with gusto into draft Hoegaarden. There's a list of wines, beers and cocktails long enough to fill twelve bars-full of Blues - if you're Putin' on The Ritz you can drink vintage champagne from your lover's shoe, or if Dat Boy's Done Gone you can weep into local beers at affordable prices.
Our bill totalled 2375 rbls for two, plus 200 rbls each cover for the music - for an enjoyable mid-week evening out. You could happily eat for less - or just snack, drink, and chill. The house trio provided varied and interesting entertainment, and we left "Round Midnight.
04.04.03.
