Summer Veranda on Nikolskaya.

Wine&Crab on Nikolskaya has opened its summer veranda. It's done in blue and azure tones and awash in flowers — hydrangeas create the feel of a European garden. Soft sofas and comfortable armchairs muffle the city noise and make the veranda a place for an unhurried lunch or dinner. Tretyakovsky Proezd, a street where boutique visitors like to stroll, sits right nearby, and the atmosphere of that pedestrian zone comes through well from the veranda. It's a good spot both for a quick break after shopping and for an unhurried meeting at sunset.

Wide umbrellas provide shelter from the sun and summer downpours. On cool evenings, the waitstaff bring out blankets. The space is open daily from noon to midnight. All summer, they offer crab and fish dishes cooked with seasonal vegetables and seafood. On the menu: risotto with crab, suluguni cheese, and asparagus, as well as a lightly smoked halibut fillet with a green pea purée. For a group, there's a three-crab casserole with seafood, Mediterranean-style.

In tone and presentation, Wine&Crab recalls a coastal restaurant, even though it sits right in the center of Moscow. It's a convenient stop at any hour — by day, or closer to nightfall, when the city slowly quiets down and the lights come on along Nikolskaya.