New Menu at Joli Grand Bistrot from Glen Ballis

The inspiration that concept chef Glen Ballis brought back from his travels across Russia has taken shape in Joli Grand Bistrot's updated menu. Among the starters, you can now choose veal aspic, toast with cod liver mousse and red caviar, or tongue carpaccio with a whipped cream and horseradish mousse.

For the main courses — pike cutlets with crushed potatoes and peas, duck leg confit, chicken Kiev, and Burgundy-style osso buco. While working on the update, Glen Ballis also drew on the connection between Russian and French cuisine, which developed side by side and complemented each other in the 19th century. As a result, flavors everyone has known since childhood reveal themselves from an entirely different angle.

Joli Grand Bistrot is a St. Petersburg project by Mikhail Sokolov, Timur Dmitriev, and Glen Ballis. The menu's main emphasis is on Mediterranean cuisine. Once inside the Myasnikov mansion, where the restaurant is located, you might think you've stepped into a greenhouse — there are that many live plants. The interior is the work of designer Evgenia Uzhegova (Eva, Muse, Niki). Right at the entrance, you see a flower shop and a display case of fresh pastries. Beyond them is a spacious dining room, where the tables sit among the greenery, and seven-meter ceilings are crowned with chandeliers from local craftsmen.

The ideological force behind Joli's kitchen is Glen Ballis, an Australian chef with Greek roots. He spent 20 years working in Southeast Asia, then in London restaurants, and finally ended up in Russia. Among the chef's notable projects are restaurants Eva, Avocado Queen, and №13 Restaurant, and that's far from all of them. Not long ago he opened his own restaurant, CuttaCutta, whose menu, like Ballis's other projects, offers straightforward comfort food. His awards include the Insider Prize, the GQ Man of the Year award in the "Restaurateur of the Year" category, and the "Palm Branch of the Restaurant Business 2018" award.