Khroniki Bar Saint Petersburg

This bar is located in the part of city centre where an increasing number of restaurants, gastropubs and such have been opening lately. The area between Ploshchad Vosstaniya and Chernyshevskaya metro stations is where a lot seems to happen, and I'm quite happy for that, if only because it's not far from where I happen to live.

Not that the area was really deserted before Khroniki opened in 2013: a veteran consignment shop has been holding out in the building since times immemorial (from 1972, to be precise).

Historical memory waltzes into this sentence; Khroniki translates as "chronicles", albeit it's also a slightly dated slang word for chronic alcoholics. Its motto references "Nordic spirit" and "Leningrad tradition", and "Free Ingria" cocktails are indeed chased by sprat sandwiches by punters.

Another thing I adore is its strong connection to journalism, my former profession. Khroniki was co-founded by The Village's local editor Pyotr Birger, DJs include writers for publications such as the Russian edition of Rolling Stone, and the bar sometimes augments its assortments of drinks and sandwiches with cinephile mag Séance and embattled regional newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya.

In case you feel like pub-crawling but don't want to walk far, literally next door to Khroniki there's Redrum Bar which is run by craft beer makers AFBrew, and several more establishments within easy spitting distance.