Irish pubs these days are almost as common as pizzerias the world over, so when Vladimir V. Luchina wanted to come up with a more original theme for a bar in Yekaterinburg, a Russian city in the Urals, he hit on the idea of a Scottish pub. Gordon's, which opened 18 months ago, is now one

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nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu) of the hottest places in town, particularly on weekend nights when local rock 'n' roll groups with names like the Spoilers play.

Luchina has tried hard to make Gordon's look straight from the Highlands. Barmen wear kilts, a set of bagpipes adorns the bar, and the walls are covered with posters of haggis, Scottish flags, watercolors of Edinburgh Castle and the pub's fake Scottish crest. One of the most fun touches is a Lenin statue wearing a tartan beret.

Shipping beer the 4,000 km from Scotland has proved too much of a challenge, though, so the ale is mostly Russian, German and, yes, Irish. But there are Scotch whisky brands aplenty and the menu tries hard to stay on theme. Full Duncan salad (named after the Highlander hero Duncan MacLeod) and Dundee lamb chop are on offer, as is an Orkney Island salad — although the menu acknowledges with disarming honesty that, while the calamari it's made of are very fresh, "O.K. maybe they're not brought in all the way from Scotland."

The place draws a crowd of an emerging new generation of middle-class Russians. "The people who come are those who have achieved something in life," boasts Yuri Lazarov, the staff director. Sometimes the bar seems to try a little too hard. The menu includes "very wild boar" and "extraction of the huntsman" (roast pork and potatoes with a cherry cognac sauce), all unlikely to feature in a pub in Scotland. And unlike in the mother country itself, there's no restriction on smoking. Still, with a little imagination and a lot of whisky, you could almost be at yer auntie's hoose. tel: (7-343) 355 45 35

• PETER GUMBEL / Yekaterinburg
• Yekaterinburg plays host to a Scottish pub where barmen don kilts and a statue of Lenin wears a tartan beret