The adage ‘go big or go home’ may not have been coined in Russia, but it may as well be the country’s motto. Take restaurateur Kira Baybakova’s newest Moscow venture, The Y – an expansive multifaceted culinary experience.
Spanning 6,000 s ft and two floors of a newly built residential structure in the city centre, the 200-cover restaurant offers big adventure in a series of small doses. The vision of New York-based design studio Asthetíque, the venue brings together a café, private and public dining rooms, a bar and a secret playroom, all of which come together in a maze of delicate pastels and a 1970s aesthetic for a sequence of larger than life encounters.
Theatrical from every angle, the variety of areas at The Y is intended to reflect the diversity of generation Y, as the name indicates. Rooms are spacious and lofty, and created to accommodate a multitude of functions and needs, while Asthetíque’s nod to the 1970s could equally be mistaken for a Wes Anderson homage, with bold hues and geometric symmetry present in every space. On the ground floor tall metal framed doors give way to a dining room defined by a rhythm of arches — seen in wall panelling and bespoke chandeliers — alongside botanical wall art and a surplus of brass, velvet and marble that together create an image reminiscent of a French bistro. Elsewhere, in The Y’s café, polished concrete flooring and brass panelled walls offer the same old-world charm, albeit with a casual accent, while an upstairs restaurant mirrors this aesthetic with the more stately addition of dark wood and steel framed internal windows.
The end result is a smooth blend of contemporary design flavoured with a dash of nostalgia on the grandest of scales that could only be pulled off with aplomb here. §
