The legend has it that Piotr Eliseev sold his first sack of oranges in 1812, exactly on this spot at the corner of Nevsky prospect and Malaya Sadovaya. And so the history of the famous Russian merchant family began.

90 years later the ancestors built a new shop here to become the centre of their trading empire. It sold a big variety of colonial food from all over the world and also had restaurants, its own theatre, bank and commercial courses. The shop managed to survive the Soviet times, being re-transformed to the “Food store #1 Central”. Having been completely renovated in 2010, it opened again and everybody can visit it and enjoy buying gourmet food and wine and home made pastry in the historic interiors, as well as in their cafe, which is just in the middle of the shopping area under a palm tree and looks more like a huge pineapple. Sometimes in the evenings there is a live music played by an orchestra at the balcony.

The menu includes a big variety of tea, coffee, desserts as well as Russian breakfast and a lunch set of very good quality. I like dumplings with pike or salmon and highly recommend you try one of these.