Later that evening, I dined at Cafe Pushkin, another vogue restaurant, where the dessert list featured tastings of 60 different types of Russian honey - Motherwart, Schizandra and Split-lip Hampnette being a few that caught my eye.
That's what I found most interesting about being in Moscow right now. For every billionaire buying Swarovski crystal hubcaps for his Bentley, there's someone taking the time to curate something as earthy and organic as a honey menu.
Sure, even former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev may pose for an advertisement for Louis Vuitton luggage, but there are also plenty of Muscovites who are rediscovering the less luxe joys of, say, the Kuklachyov Cat Theater, where felines walk on tightropes and perform other amusing acrobatics.
Or, they're dining at Simple Things, which serves gourmet takes on some staples of the Russian peasantry as borscht and kvass, a beverage made from rye bread that - at least to my palette - tastes like super-yeasty root beer. Or, they are rediscovering the romantic canvases of a 19th-century Russian painter Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin.
I encountered Shishkin on my last day in Moscow, when I walked to the Tretyakov Gallery, an airport hangar-sized museum with a numbingly vast collection of 20th-century Russian art. Most of the galleries were strangely empty, a fact explained when I arrived at the jam-packed retrospective of Shishkin's heroically large landscapes of woodland and nature scenes.
I'm guessing he operates on the Russian psyche in a way similar to how Norman Rockwell affects us in America. Shishkin's paintings make Moscow nostalgic for a time before shimmering fields of wheat were replaced with shopping malls and "gated community" housing developments for the newly rich.
There's even a newly coined Russian word for these lavish homes that are sprouting; they're called McDachas.
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
There are several ways to get from Baltimore to Moscow. Delta, American and British Airways offer connecting flights - with a change of planes - from BWI Marshall Airport. Aeroflot, the Russian carrier, flies nonstop to Moscow from Dulles International. Restricted round-trip fares start at about $700 plus taxes and fees.
LODGING
Hotel Baltschug Kempinski
Ulitsa Baltschug 1. 011-7-495-230-6500; www.kempinski-moscow.com. A five-star luxury hotel overlooking the Moscow River, with a business center, health club, two restaurants and great views of the city. Rooms start at $265.
