Nevsky under a roof: Singer, Passage and jazz

⏱ 3 h 30 min🚶 1.8 km🍽 3📍 5 stops

🐢 A little — under 3 km

A rainy evening on Nevsky almost without an umbrella: coffee in the Singer House, the arches of Gostiny Dvor, Passage's glass gallery, dinner at Eliseyev and live jazz until night.

🌙 Evening🏛 History and architecture☔️ If it rains

🗺 Open in Yandex Maps

1
☕️ Singer House and Café René
Невский пр., 28
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Start at 18:00–20:00 at Nevsky Prospekt metro. Go up to the second floor of the House of Books: coffee and a pastry by the window onto Kazan Cathedral, the café is open until 23:00.
🍴 A Russian-French café, René, on the 2nd floor of the House of Books (Singer House) from the Aster team, with windows onto Kazan Cathedral, breakfasts in the morning and a pastry counter. What to order: vareniki, gratin with Gruyère, onion soup, pyshki or a croissant with coffee.
🚶 on foot
2
🏛 Gostiny Dvor
Невский пр., 35
A huge 18th-century shopping complex with yellow arcade galleries along Nevsky.
Cross Nevsky by the underpass and walk along Nevsky under the gallery's arches to Sadovaya — there's a roof overhead almost the whole way.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Tatiusa · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Gostiny Dvor was conceived as the largest trading building in the Russian Empire; Rastrelli's design was approved in 1757.
- It was built by Vallin de la Mothe, who kept Rastrelli's layout but dressed the building in early Neoclassical forms.
- In the 1840s Gostiny Dvor was one of the first buildings in the city to get gas lighting.
- People came not only to shop: they arranged dates and "accidental" matchmaking meetings here, and Krylov loved to stroll through.
- In 1966 the department store was visited by around 300,000 shoppers a day.
- Since 3 November 1967 the vestibule of Gostiny Dvor metro station has been built into the building.
🚶 on foot
3
🏛 Passage
Невский пр., 48
A 19th-century department store with a glass roof over a long arcade of shops from Nevsky Prospekt to Italyanskaya Street.
Through the crossing at Sadovaya to the other side. The 19th-century glass gallery stretches from Nevsky to Italyanskaya; the department store is open until 22:00.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Ivonna Nowicka · CC BY-SA 4.0
© GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Passage opened on 9 May 1848; it was built by architect Rudolf Zhelyazevich for Count Essen-Stenbock-Fermor.
- From the 1860s Turgenev, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky and Chernyshevsky performed in Passage's concert hall.
- In 1879 Crédit Lyonnais set up here — the only foreign bank then allowed to operate in Russia.
- In 1904–1906 Vera Komissarzhevskaya's theatre worked in Passage's hall.
- In 1961 the first department store for women in the USSR opened in Passage.
- Passage is mentioned in the title of Dostoevsky's story “The Crocodile: An Extraordinary Event, or the Passage in the Passage”.
🚶 on foot
4
☕️ Eliseevsky Store
Невский пр., 56
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A hundred meters along Nevsky. Tea with pastries by the display windows or dinner on the second floor under stained glass; the shop is open until 23:00.
🍴 A food hall in an Art Nouveau building from 1903 (now the Eliseev Merchants' Store) with a café by the display counters, a restaurant on the 2nd floor and “Warehouse No. 5” in the former wine cellar. What to order: cakes from their own pastry shop, tea, shchi in a bread loaf, chocolate as a gift.
🚶 on foot
5
🍸 The Hat jazz bar
ул. Белинского, 9
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The only long stretch — 10 minutes along Nevsky and the Fontanka to Belinsky Bridge. The bar opens at 19:00, the jazz jam starts closer to night; tables aren't reserved.
🍴 Billy Novik's jazz bar, where live jazz is played every evening in a jam-session format, often with visiting musicians. What to order: whisky, classic cocktails from the bartender.

↩️ Getting back: To Mayakovskaya or Gostiny Dvor metro — 10–12 minutes on foot along Belinskogo and Liteyny or along Nevsky.