Last night Cy and I attended the Preview Party for three-floor DC outpost of Russian restaurant,  Mari Vanna. In the United States, MV has three restaurants: LA, NYC, and now, DC.

Last night, they had a blini station on the first floor. Blinis are very thin crepes you eat with a variety of toppings. My favorite blini toppings were the butter fish and the sour cherries. My favorite of the appetizers was the Russian sausage with cucumber.

I got to speak to one of the servers, Beau Pineda, who is also a bartender who helps design the drinks (often using molecular mixology) at MV. He had the bartender Sam (who also designs drinks for MV) make me a honey oat martini, which was very good. Cy had a drink made with strawberry vodka.  We both enjoyed wasabi vodka shots, but our favorite drink of the evening was something Beau made for us special, the Grusha, which was made with pear vodka, St. Germain Elder Flower, lemon, simple syrup, and raspberry and Mors Bitters cavier, and was topped off with Russian Champagne.

I was told that MV would be opening on the 21st, but earlier today I received an email saying that they are open for dinner tonight.

-JAY