The Belle Vue, which is an alternative name for Felicien’s, is on the Islands, the beautiful suburb of .lawns and gardens and park land inter- FeiiCien/s sected by water where the rich men of Kammeny the city have their summer villas. Its 0strov situation is magnificent, being just opposite the Czar’s summer palace, on the Island of Illargui. Felicien’s was closed when I visited St. Petersburg in the late autumn, but Ernest’s, another summer restaurant on the road out to the Islands, was still open, and I dined there one evening. It is affiliated to Ernests the Cafe de l’Ours, just as Felicien’s 60 Kammeno is to Cubat’s. At Ernest’s I found a 0strovsky big suite of red rooms and a large winter garden in which were many palms. A gipsy band played on a platform at the end of the rooms, and the leader gave himself ridiculous airs. I asked for the dinner of the day, and was given a choice of soups, a fish which 3B6 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe was very much like a whiting, but more heavily fleshed, served a la Colbert , beef, fowl, a vegetable dish and a sweet, a dinner quite well cooked, but nothing distinguished or interesting in it. The charge for this was 3 roubles, and as usual my humble pint of red wine and glass of old brandy were the largest items in the bill. I am told that both Ernest’s and Felicien’s are opened in the winter occasionally for the convenience of sleighing parties, and I can readily understand the pleasure of coming out of a mist of frozen snow into one of their com- fortable dining-rooms. Beyond the Islands, and well outside St. Petersburg, „ , , is the Samarkand, a restaurant which in winter serves as the point to which sleigh drives are made. It is not considered a first- class restaurant. In St. Petersburg I lunched one day at Leiner’s, a German restaurant on the Nevsky Prospect, which Leiner was very crowded and very bustling, 18 Nevsky and I ate a German meal which was Prospect plenteous for its price, 1 rouble. I drank some Russian Pilsener beer which was quite light and quite cool. There is a purely Russian restaurant, Palkine, Palkine on t^ie Nevsky Prospect, but having 17 Nevsky walked into it with the intention of Prospect ordering a Russian meal, I could find no one there who talked any language other than Russian, and in despair I beat a retreat. The Hotel de France has a luncheon at 75 kopeks, or is. 6d., which is very popular with the Hotel de France, business community of St. Petersburg, 6 Bolchaia ’ and its dining-room is crowded from Moskaia 12.30 to 2 o’clock. The food is not high-class, but of a good bourgeois description, and the place is kept by a Belgian, Mons. Renault. Russia 3^7 St. Petersburg Clubs The New English Club, which must not be con- founded with the English Club, is the British club of St. Petersburg. It has its rooms at British Club,

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The Belle Vue, which is an alternative name for Felicien's, is on the Islands, the beautiful suburb of lawns and gardens and park land inter- FeiiCien/s sected by water where the rich men of Kammeny the city have their summer villas. Its 0strov situation is magnificent, being just opposite the Czar’s summer palace, on the Island of Illargui. Felicien’s was closed when I visited St. Petersburg in the late autumn, but Ernest’s, another summer restaurant on the road out to the Islands, was still open, and I dined there one evening. It is affiliated to Ernests the Cafe de l’Ours, just as Felicien’s 60 Kammeno is to Cubat’s. At Ernest’s I found a 0strovsky big suite of red rooms and a large winter garden in which were many palms. A gipsy band played on a platform at the end of the rooms, and the leader gave himself ridiculous airs. I asked for the dinner of the day, and was given a choice of soups, a fish which 386 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe was very much like a whiting, but more heavily fleshed, served a la Colbert , beef, fowl, a vegetable dish and a sweet, a dinner quite well cooked, but nothing distinguished or interesting in it. The charge for this was 3 roubles, and as usual my humble pint of red wine and glass of old brandy were the largest items in the bill. I am told that both Ernest’s and Felicien’s are opened in the winter occasionally for the convenience of sleighing parties, and I can readily understand the pleasure of coming out of a mist of frozen snow into one of their comfortable dining-rooms. Beyond the Islands, and well outside St. Petersburg, „ , , is the Samarkand, a restaurant which in winter serves as the point to which sleigh drives are made. It is not considered a firstclass restaurant. In St. Petersburg I lunched one day at Leiner’s, a German restaurant on the Nevsky Prospect, which Leiner was very crowded and very bustling, 18 Nevsky and I ate a German meal which was Prospect plenteous for its price, 1 rouble. I drank some Russian Pilsener beer which was quite light and quite cool. There is a purely Russian restaurant, Palkine, Palkine on t^ie Nevsky Prospect, but having 17 Nevsky walked into it with the intention of Prospect ordering a Russian meal, I could find no one there who talked any language other than Russian, and in despair I beat a retreat. The Hotel de France has a luncheon at 75 kopeks, or is. 6d., which is very popular with the Hotel de France, business community of St. Petersburg, 6 Bolchaia ’ and its dining-room is crowded from Moskaia 12.30 to 2 o’clock. The food is not high-class, but of a good bourgeois description, and the place is kept by a Belgian, Mons. Renault. Russia 3^7 St. Petersburg Clubs The New English Club, which must not be confounded with the English Club, is the British club of St. Petersburg. It has its rooms at British Club,

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