There are several places scattered around the city, where the bookish people can have a great time with a cupcake, a pot of green tea in surrounding with like-minded souls.
Here are six popular bookshop cafes you can find in Moscow. Enjoy democratic prices and literary atmosphere.
Bookberry
Bookberry is a chain of bookstores based in Moscow, and with stores in that city and in Yekaterinburg.
This bookshop has an adjoined cafe “Shokoladnitsa” that attracts customers. People come here read, sip, chat and enjoy a no-fuss atmosphere. Here you can eat and read even at night.
On some days, when special actions take place, you can buy a book at the shop, come to this café, order a cake and get a cup of coffee for free.
Presentation of books are held here 2-3 times a month.
Interior: green striped wallpapers, dark cherry wooden furniture, an orange wall with autographs of authors (it remained from the previous cafe), books on the shelves, brought by regular visitors.
Audience: lonely readers, young people appear closer to the night.
Address: 10, Kutuzovsky prospekt. “Kievskaya” metro station.
Phone number:+7 (499) 243-40-03; +7 (499) 243-39-81.
Opening hours: 24 hours a day.
House of Book “Medvedkovo”
This bookshop has its own unique cozy cafe “12 tables”. You can take a book from the shelf and read it while sitting with a cup of tea (12 rubles) or coffee (30 rubles) and a fresh puff (12 rubles). Here you can also listen to the book – there are devices that play audio books and music. Find your favourite book among fiction bestsellers, cookery, business and children's literature, displayed on the upper shelves and buy it on the trading floor.
Interior: minimalist style, gray-black tones that don't distract from the reading. Round tables, curved back chairs and soft pillows, set into the wall, on which you can comfortably lean back. The cafe presents exhibitions of black and white photographs.
Enjoy an unhurried and artistic atmosphere that coffee, books and photographs create.
Audience: regular visitors, residents of the neighborhood. People come here in the morning on their way to work to have a snack and to buy a book to read it in the subway.
Address: 12, Zarevy proezd.
Phone number: +7 (495) 476-16-90.
Website: www.bearbooks.ru/projects/cafe.asp.
Biblio-Globus
Biblio-Globus is a grand three-storey bookshop located in the centre of Moscow. It is the biggest and the most popular store in the city. If go down to the lowest floor of the building, you will discover “Literary cafe”, a charming place with a figure of Alexander Pushkin, sitting at the table in the corner.
Here you can take a break from walking in the trade halls replete with a huge amount of various books. Try brewed coffee, pancakes with caviar, special sandwich "Uncle" Biblio-Globus " and different desserts.
Interior: Round tables covered with tablecloths with a shimmering golden tracery, elegant chairs, the sculpture of the greatest Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
Audience: visitors of the shop, poets, writers.
Disadvantages: a noisy place.
Address: 6/3, Myasnitskaya street, building 1.
ExLibris
It is important to mention in the beginning that this cafe, opened in 2009 doesn't belong to any bookshop. Nevertheless, it is closely connected with books as it is located at the Turgenev Library.
This cafe holds various literary, musical and artistic events, readings and discussions for people of different ages.
Interior: smoking and non-smoking rooms, banquet hall with sound equipment and video projector, bookshelves, where you can find poetry magazines "Arion" and "Air."
Address: 6, Bobrov lane, building 1. “Turgenevskaya” or “Chistye Prudy” metro stations.
Phone number: +7 (495) 625-58-55.
E-Mail: dir@exlibriscafe.ru
Bilingua
This popular Moscow spot unites cafe-library and a bookstore. The signs on the door "Here are miraculous books” and "Reading is the music" make you feel like in a bibliophile's paradise.
There are two floors with shelves of books, where you can discover serious literature of the leading Russian publishers and authors from United States, Britain and Japan.
Interior: old wooden tables and chairs, bar counter made of brick, the view from thewindow at the Myasnitskaya street.
Audience: poets, writers, students.
What books you can find: children's books, memoirs, poetry (the old collections of poetry, which are not reprinted for a very long time) - all except modern romance novels and detective stories.
Address: 10, Krivokolenny lane, building 5.
Project O.G.I
This is the case when the independent publishing house has transformed into a thriving network of cafes. Here you can find a bookstore, a cafe and a club. Various concerts are held in the evening.
Snack are very good and democratic prices are great for young backpackers: a very tasty coffee for 45 rubles, a portion of two pies for 29 rubles.
Interior: in the spirit of the student minimalism. If you go down the spiral staircase in the smoke-filled basement, you will see a room with walls of red brick, decorated with hand painted fragments, metal chandeliers in the medieval style, which create a rather dim lighting.
The audience: mostly student companies.
Address: 8/12, Potapovsky lane, building 2.
Author: Natalia Semicheva