Where

Soviet-era propaganda posters add a historical flair

Avant-Garde Bar & Gift Shop is easy to miss if you’re not searching for it. Squished in between the booming beats of Ritual Nightclub and the orange glow of iTan Advanced Tanning Studios, the restaurant defines hole-in-the-wall.

Dim lighting and flickering candles contribute to the feeling that you’ve stumbled upon an Ottawa secret, while the walls decorated with Soviet-era propaganda posters evoke a bygone era. All the posters, art, and other merchandise — European sports teams’ baseball hats, polo shirts, hoodies — are for sale.

This Avant-Garde promo poster describes the bar as a cultural hub "where local poets, musicians, artists, designers, and political activitists gather."

When asked about the décor, owner Alex Yugin says, “The Soviet era is very striking artistically and culturally. Every element of décor and every Soviet propaganda poster is surely unlike any traditional pub-related environment. Also, with our family hailing directly from St. Petersburg, Russia, we felt we had a very refreshing and authentic cultural Soviet perspective to offer in comparison to more of a “vintage” North American view.”

The Soviet theme carries over to the menu. For example, classic Russian dishes such as Siberian pelemeni (ground beef dumplings) and borscht are found under the witty heading, “Five-Year Plan Entrees,” referring to Stalin’s five –year plan for stimulating the Soviet Union’s economy. The traditional fare appears alongside more Western-style dishes such as nachos, fittingly named “food stamps nachos,” and a mixed greens salad.

The real gem, however, is the drink menu, which consists of three jam-packed pages of cocktails, martinis, shooters, wine, beer, port, sherry, spirits, and liquors. Cocktails such as “Proletarian Omelet,” “Orange Revolution,” and “From Russia with Love” mix the political with the whimsical. A couple of the most popular cocktails include the “Soviet Sunrise,” a mix of lemon-flavoured vodka and special syrup, and “Red October,” which contains vodka, soda, and a mix of syrups. (more…)