{"id":8312,"date":"2024-06-30T21:18:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-30T19:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/?p=8312"},"modified":"2024-10-02T11:48:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T09:48:26","slug":"zelenogradsk-restaurant-balt-atmosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/zelenogradsk-restaurant-balt-atmosphere\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenogradsk Restaurant BALT a Lesson in Harmony"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Balt Restaurant Zelenogradsk Review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Updated: 30 June 2024 | First Published: 29 January 2023 ~ Zelenogradsk Restaurant BALT a Lesson in Harmony<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure, almost certain<\/em><\/strong>, that it was not there 18 months ago when I last visited Zelenogradsk (doesn\u2019t time fly!), but it was there now. I am talking about a new restaurant ~ new to me ~ that sits smack bang at the midway point of Zelenogradsk\u2019s serpentine high street: a large, impressive, luxurious establishment set back from the street inside a broad paved plaza, its plate-glass single-storey extension forming a scaled juxtaposition against the taller four-storey building to which it is attached, the latter meticulously refurbished to a grand and imposing standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the winter months when we were in town, the first impression of this restaurant from the outside looking in was PC; that\u2019s not politically correct, but plush and cosy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was bitterly cold that day, and if the hallmark of a successful bar or restaurant is principally defined by the pulling power it possesses to tempt one off the street, then rest assured Balt restaurant has it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, did I forget to tell you? The name of the restaurant is Balt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first impression from the exterior of the building, which is so categorically  bourgeoisie that Lenin had turned his back to it, was swish. I made a mental note, a simple equation: plush+posh+impressive+coastal-resort-town-centre = expensive. So, let\u2019s jump to the bill. We had three dishes, nothing elaborate, a speciality tea and a glass of beer. It didn\u2019t break the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mick<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second impression the Balt conveys is \u2018big\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s so big!\u201d say your senses, when perhaps what they should be saying is not that it\u2019s so \u2018big\u2019 but \u201cIt\u2019s so tall\u201d! In keeping with the modern trend in bar and restaurant design, the Balt is undeniably big, but, initially and accurately, the spaciousness perceived is confined to the height of the ceiling. In fact, the seating area which leads away from the entrance hall is limited to the perimeter of the extended part of the building; it forms the letter \u2018L\u2019, being a long, but slightly wider than the word implies, corridor. This is because, once again conforming to popular predilections, the restaurant is built around the kitchen, in other words built to a plan in which a centralised kitchen is King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the olden days, restaurants concealed their kitchens as though they were the black sheep of the family, the philosophy seeming to be ‘out of sight, out of mind’. This closeted mentality was an excellent way of keeping patrons on edge, since they never knew come the following morning, having enjoyed their meal the night before, whether their friends would be ready and waiting to scream, \u201cYou didn\u2019t eat there<\/em>, did you!\u201d and then hamming it up with relish, proceed to\u00a0recount in lurid detail the latest hygiene scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, there is no need to be told by the \u2018well-meaning\u2019 ~ friends, family or the media ~ what goes on in restaurant kitchens, because everything is on display and laid out for the eyes to see. Restaurant kitchens have come of age. They are open, accessible, uninhibited, something to be admired, something to be proud of, not hidden away like a seedy back room in the depths of a mucky book shop. Restaurant kitchens have been emancipated, and a large part of that liberation lies in the transformation from an observance of cautious propriety to out-and-out exhibitionism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True, some bar and restaurant designs tend to over-egg the souffl\u00e9. Displaying a kitchen eagerly in all its stainless steel, hygiene-oriented, busy, industrious, functioning glory is one thing, but it is quite another and quite inexcusable to overdo the exposure. Thankfully, Balt\u2019s kitchen is a far more sophisticated and in-keeping centrepiece, enabling it to escape comparison with a man in a mac on a hill surrounded by too little foliage. I think the word I am searching for is \u2018subtle\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, everything about Balt, not in its individual accoutrements but taken as a job lot, regarded in its entirety, is the epitome of subtle. How this works exactly is rather clever, because Balt is far and away not without a surprise or two, not undernourished in novelty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenogradsk Restaurant BALT<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We were able to appreciate both the component parts of this dichotomy and its overarching effect from the favourable location of the table to which we had been escorted. The seats to which we had been shown occupied the latter portion upon the longer extension of the ‘L’ shaped room, almost at its inflection, thus availing us of a first-class view of each and all the different elements, which, when assembled as a whole, add up to the Balt experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, we were close to the kitchen, just a few feet away from the serving area: a long, curved counter on which chefs add the finishing touches to the dishes they are preparing before popping them into the tandoor oven, and from which attentive waiters pick up meals that are ready to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chef<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From our vantage point, we had a privileged view of the kitchen and the floor-to-ceiling tandoor, a large cylindrical-shaped oven used for baking unleavened flatbreads and for roasting meat. Once the open oven door and blazing fire beyond had ceased to remind me of crematoria, it was fun to watch the chef at work, sliding the various dishes and breads into the wood-fired oven with the help of a peel, a long-handled shovel-like implement with a flat metal pan attached to its furthest extremity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chef<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking straight ahead, I noted with satisfaction the high-backed wooden chairs belonging to the nearest table. The back rests consisted of two vertical ebonised planks slightly angled toward one another. Close to their highest point a pair of semi-circles had been cut out so that in alignment they formed a circle. The only other concession to decoration was the seemingly random inclusion of small, pierced motifs ~ simple shapes which donated a touch of mystique without disturbing the minimalist balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ebonised<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My forward view also provided examples of ingenious lighting styles, including a heavy, orange tassel-roped pendant and lampshades mimicking small sheaths of straw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rope<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The tables to the left and behind me were objects to be marvelled at. The tops were made of marble, the ends scalloped to give an uncut look. They were supported on a cluster of angled posts, recycled wave-breaking poles, some of which had been allowed to protrude through the table\u2019s surface, and hovering above them with remarkable pendulosity was a clump or cluster of shell-like bowls, off-white in shade and in shape asymmetrical, which had me wondering, out loud as it happens, if they were really made from the pumpkin skins I imagined they were or from moulded papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Zelenogradsk<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every item in the Balt\u2019s atmospheric makeup is an imagistic letter in the word and concept of \u2018Natural\u2019: wood, stone, fire, rope, straw, vegetables. At one end of the subtle spectrum, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble would not look out of place, but the Balt\u2019s natural is a polished natural that borrows as much for its appeal on the application of chic sophistry as it does from down-to-earth and back-to-nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crazy<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Balt<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For all its emphasis on the natural world, Balt\u2019s designers’ have hedged their bets, choosing not to preclude but include the fashionable tried and tested, omniprevalent in bar and restaurant, distressed industrial look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This approach has become so widespread that it has gone beyond \u2018must have\u2019 to ‘can\u2019t do without\u2019. In the Balt, it has gone one further, becoming \u2018Would you Adam and Eve it, the concept actually works!\u2019: \u00a0rocks, marble, stoneware vases, corn plants, vegetables and pieces of tree, rub along quite nicely, thank you, with gnarled brickwork, whitewashed slat-board, old beam ceilings, exposed ventilation ducts and suspended arty farty spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Zelenogradsk<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is a tribute to Balt\u2019s interior designers that they have managed to pull off a subtle, seamless fusion of modern chic and reclaimed-rundown and then wrap it all up in an eco-friendly ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Harmony<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a nutshell ~ and I am sure that Balt would approve of the use of such natural imagery ~ the key word to Balt\u2019s come-hither and dine-within appeal is harmony. Everything, including things that would normally be at odds with each other, are wedlocked. It might be a marriage of convenience, but one that is no less perfect for it. Even the ethnic music, with its emphasis on tom-tom beat and repetitive chanting, is low-key, Sade-like and subtle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the centre and everywhere else of this is lighting. I\u2019ve said it before; I\u2019ve said it again; I\u2019ll say it again and keep on saying it: from Restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris to The Four Seasons B&B in Brightlingsea, if the lighting is not right everything else will be wrong. Lighting is the magic drawstring that pulls everything together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n