Baltimore?s new Red Square Restaurant and Lounge is giving many people their first taste of Russian cuisine — with options ranging from pickle-flavored vodka to salami soup.
The restaurant doesn?t yet have a sign to mark its spot under the Belvedere Condominium on Baltimore?s Charles street ? but it is already drawing in a slew of international visitors from around the region.
“There are diverse people coming in, with various languages and nationalities,” said Freddie Howard, who works the front desk at the Belvedere.
The Red Square maintains its Russian pride: Statues of Stalin and Lenin are kept in glass cases in the red-hued dining room, and a poster of Russian candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates Vladimir Michael Koyfman hangs in the hallway.
Baltimore is home to about 5,500 people of Russian ancestry, according to data from the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau, and Russians flock to the restaurant because there isn?t another one in the area, he said.
But those numbers can?t support a Russian restaurant, so Shvartsburg has international chefs preparing Ukrainian, Georgian and Uzbek dishes to draw in extra customers.
Restaurant owner Leon Shvartsburg, who came to the United States from Russia in 1994, said he has to explain every item on the menu to many customers, including the blinies, which are similar to crepes, but stuffed with feta cheese, red caviar, or ice cream.
“We try to be international ? not just Russian ? otherwise we could be open only two days a week,” he said.
All of the nationalities come together to party on the weekends, when the restaurant morphs into a nightclub with live entertainment.
The bartender serves up excitement with a Sambuca fire drink, pouring a waterfall of fire into a glass. The bar also carries 20 kinds of Russian beer and 40 different types of vodka, including flavors of pickle, horseradish, ginseng, beet and milk.
“You eat horseradish with your meat ? why not in your vodka?” Shvartsburg said.
Red Square Restaurant and Lounge
» 1023 N. Charles St., Baltimore
Located under the Belvedere Condominiums
» Call 410-837-7733
» redsquaremd.com
