The food — Italian and Russian — is delicious. The service, attentive and professional. But what distinguishes the Writers' Club from the growing ranks of quality restaurants in Moscow is its exquisite and evocative interior.
In few other places can a diner be so richly steeped in the dramatic vicissitudes of recent Russian history. This stately turreted mansion was built in 1889 in a pseudo-medieval style for Prince Svyatopolk-Chervertinsky and later the same year was bought by Countess Alexandra Olsufyeva.
Its main Oak Hall, a spacious room paneled in that wood also features a massive oak staircase built without nails. The stairs...