Yar (restaurant)

The Yar (Russian: Яр) was the name of several restaurants and a theatre in 19th century Moscow frequented by Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Maxim Gorky. They were famous for its Sokolovsky gypsy choir.^[1] The Yar ran from 1826 to 1925 on the street known as Kuznetsky Most.^[2] Its name comes from the Russian spelling of the surname of its owner, Tranquille Yard.^[3]

Moscow Kuznetsky Most Street No.9 in 2008, no longer a restaurant

The second "Yar" opened 1913

The second Yar (by the same owner) was opened on the St. Petersburg chaussée built by Adolf Erichson 1909-1913. The restaurant became popular among Russian elite. It was visited by Leonid Andreev, Konstantin Balmont, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Alexander Kuprin, Savva Morozov, Grigory Rasputin, and Fyodor Shalyapin.^[4]

The current Yar is in the Sovietsky Hotel on Leningradsky Prospect (Moscow).^[5]