Focusing In On the Uzviz: Down that Long and Winding Road Past all the shops and kiosks on Kyiv's most famous street lie great galleries and museums, restaurants and spectacular views.
Kyiv’s so-called “most charming street,” Andriyivsky Uzviz is a lure for tourists: a respite from the bustle of a city that’s
rapidly changing, a repository of Kyivan history, and a teeming bazaar, where vendors who sell old Lenin busts, creepy Wehrmacht medals left over from World War II and banners proclaiming communism’s glory play backgammon together until passerby stop to inspect their wares more closely. Residents who decades ago lucked out in the Soviet housing lottery lean on aging balconies to view the street life below.
Andriyivsky Uzviz, literally “Andrew’s Ascent,” named after the picturesque Baroque St. Andrew’s Church (1749-54) at the hill’s top, has long been home to artists and artisans, as well as members of the city’s upper classes. “Kyiv’s Montemarte” is a name that has been attached to it, and its history is as old as the city itself: it was the original road between the aristocratic precincts of what used to be called the Upper City, and the bustling mercantile center of dockside Podil, which begins where the Uzviz ends, at Kontraktova Ploshcha. Take away the occasional sight of a Mercedes Benz or a Lada rattling its way along the Uzviz’s treacherous cobblestone curves, and the street looks much like it did a century ago.
The great novelist Mykhail Bulgakov grew up on the Uzviz, and set his Civil War novel “The White Guard” on it. At #15, the so-called Richard the Lionheart’s Castle looms, empty and foreboding: Kyiv schoolchildren consider it haunted, cursed always to stand uncompleted because of its ostentation, which represented too garish a display of wealth for local tastes.
This very weekend is a great time to stroll down Kyiv’s most famous street: The end of May brings with it the Days of Kyiv celebration, and the Uzviz will come alive even more than usual. Buskers, acrobats and other festive folk will swell the crowd of vendors, artists, musicians and tourists, and bring out a new side of this wonderful street, and the city.
Montemarte on the Dnipro
The Uzviz’s museums document everything from the street and Kyiv during the last couple of centuries to the life and times of Bulgakov. The author of, most famously, “The Master and Margarita” was born in Kyiv and grew up at #13, which became the fictional home of “The White Guard”’s Turbin family.
You can learn about how the street was first cobbled a century ago to link Kyiv’s Upper City with the Podil markets, or you can visit galleries that provide a glimpse into the imaginations of contemporary artists, native and foreign. On the grounds of the National Museum of Ukrainian History you’ll find the foundation of an ancient Orthodox cathedral, one of the city’s first, unearthed for all to see. It’s a spooky, evocative spot, and you’ll hear elderly people discuss its spiritual energy.
You’ll also hear the word “energy” come up when young Kyivans talk about that favorite hangout adjacent to the Uzviz: the wooded hills that stretch out toward the river behind the History Museum, Artema and Velika Zhytomyrska. The area doesn’t really have a name – you’ll hear kids refer to it as “Behind Artema” or simply as “Velyka Zhytomyrska” (“Ve Zhe” for short) – but it is a meaningful Kyivan place, where people congregate to experience the moody, ancient aura that drifts about the place, and also to drink, build bonfires, play music and just generally trip out.
Locals refer to this still-undeveloped spot somewhat cryptically as “the spiritual center of Kyiv,” and it’s even mentioned as such by Bulgakov. Go up at dusk, watch the bonfires burning on distant hillsides, and see a side of Kyiv most foreigners don’t know exists.
Gallery Shooting
Then there are the Uzviz’s famous galleries.
The Uzviz is clogged with storefronts selling schlock, but three top-notch galleries are Tryptykh, Atelier Karas, and Soviart. The first of the three has shown Grusha Grisha’s whimsical, beautifully-glazed ceramic animals, which are stunning explosions of color; Mikhail Tsvetkov’s stylized sculptures of strange winged beasts; and more good painters than you can count. Plus – and this is all too rare in the gallery world – the staff is helpful and friendly.
The Karas gallery is one of Kyiv’s most modish spots, and Soviart, which opened in 1987 as one of the first non-state establishments showing art, remains an epicenter of cool.
All three galleries are excellent places to buy good art at prices that don’t come near what you’d have to pay for them in the West. (Getting your art out of Ukraine is another problem.)
Finally, a word about street artists, one of the Uzviz’s characteristic sights: Some are talented, some aren’t; some are hucksters, and others are not. Like most vendors, they can all spot a foreigner a thousand miles away. You might find a bargain, but exercise taste and caution.
What to Eat and Where
It’s impossible to walk the steep Andriyivsky Uzviz even for a few hours without working up an appetite. Luckily, the street’s developed a reputation as a dining destination, and is a good place to get a great dinner, a nice cappuccino, or a beer on a patio during a warm afternoon.
Da Vinci Fish Club
12 Volodymyrska, 490-3434.
Open daily from 8 a.m. to midnight.
Known for its seafood and elegant service, the Fish Club also wins high praise for its decor. Though it’s a good place for any meal, the Fish Club happens to be the only full-service restaurant on (or almost on) the Uzviz that’s open for breakfast. Salads and simple starters are remarkably affordable; main courses tend to be pricey.
Stop in for a glass of wine or an imported draft beer (they have several on tap) on their always buzzing outdoor patio.
Reservations recommended for evening dining or for weekend spots on the patio.
Swing
11 Volodymyrska, 229-2865.
Open daily from 12 p.m. to the last customer.
Just across the street from the Fish Club, Swing is well-known by jazz fans (there’s nightly music) and lauded for its imaginative decor, splendid service and, of course, food.
Swing particularly excels at meat. Aside from steaks, chicken, grilled pork and lamb, diners at Swing can enjoy game meats such as venison, bison, pheasant, duck and goose, among others.
Reservations recommended for evening dining.
Za Dvoma Zaitsyamy (#34)
Tel.: 416-3516.
Open daily from 12 p.m. to midnight.
Ukrainian cuisine has a well-deserved reputation for being what Western restaurant critics tritely call “comfort food,” and Za Dvoma Zaitsyamy (Chasing Two Hares) is a relatively inexpensive place to find it. Located opposite the painter’s alleyway behind the Bartholomeo Rastrelli-designed St. Andrew’s Church – and with an open-air terrace located right at the alley entrance – Chasing Two Hares takes its name from the famous comedy by Ukrainian playwright Mykhailo Starytsky.
Come to Chasing Two Hares during the day and sip beer or wine out on the terrace while watching shoppers haggle for items on the street, or step inside later in the day past the regally-suited doormen for Ukrainian dishes like varenyki, holubtsi, borscht and blinys.
Reservations are usually unnecessary.
MyasoyedoFF (#11)
Tel.: 416-5037.
Open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
This meat-lovers affair (its name literally means “meat-eater”) sits unassumingly in the quaint building adjacent to the Bulgakov Museum. Look for the statue on the facade of the cat Begemot, from “The Master and Margarita” – the demonic wisecracking animal, complete with the bowtie he wears during the novel’s hellish grand ball, is about to scarf down a marinated mushroom from the top of his fork.
When you get inside the dimly lit restaurant, which is best visited during the evening when the fireplaces are lit, choose a table near the back, where it’s more private. Choose from a menu that includes T-bone steaks, veal medallions and various soups and stews. The prices for steaks range from Hr 49 to Hr 89. It’s part of the same group of restaurants that brought Kyiv another meat-lover’s restaurant, Steak House, and it serves some seafood, too, at reasonable prices.
Reservations are usually unnecessary.
Pret-a-Cafe (#10A)
Tel.: 416-1297.
Open daily from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
This little gem of a coffee shop opened up over the winter, and has gotten lots of attention for doing espressos and cappuccinos right, which is easier said than done. Also, given that the dark wood interior and refined table settings of Pret-a-Cafe will cleanse your mind of the memory of the garishly dressed tourists outside, it’s a nice place to get away from the crowd.
In addition to all manner of coffees and coffee-related beverages, priced between Hr 6 and Hr 9, Pret-a-Cafe also prepares a large number of desserts and light lunch items in case you don’t feel like sitting down for a meal, or simply haven’t the time. After all, there’s still shopping to be done outside.
Reservations are unnecessary.
Svitlitsa (13B)
Tel.: 416-3186.
Open daily from 11 a.m. till 11 p.m.
One of our favorites on the Uzviz, this charming little spot stuck precariously on the hill has one of Kyiv’s best gardens. The food’s good (try the omelet), the prices are low and – rare for Kyiv – it offers a very western sort of casual elegance without any sort of pretentiousness. The help is very nice, and obliges diners (like us) who want to sit on the patio late in the night, drinking and arguing (loudly) about politics.
Reservations are usually unnecessary.
Mikhail
Bulgakov Museum (#13)
Tel.: 416-3188.
Open daily from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Wednesdays).
Admission Hr 2;
English tours Hr 15.
One Street Museum (#26)
Tel.: 416-0398.
Open daily from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Mondays).
Admission Hr 2, Hr 4 for foreigners.
St. Andrew’s Church
(Sankt Andriyivska Tserkva) (#23)
Tel.: 228-5861.
Open daily from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Wednesdays).
Admission Hr 4.
National Museum of Ukrainian History
(2 Volodymyrska)
Tel.: 228-2924.
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Wednesdays).
Admission Hr 10.
Tryptykh gallery (#34)
Tel.: 229-8385
www.triptych-gallery.org
Open Monday-Friday 11 a.m. till
6 p.m., 11 a.m. till 7 p.m. weekends.
Atelier Karas gallery (#22A)
Tel: 238-6531,
www.artportal.org.ua/karas)
Open daily 11 a.m. till 6 p.m.
Soviart gallery (#22A)
Tel: 416-2219
www.soviart.com.ua
Open daily 10 a.m. till 7 p.m.
(closed Mondays).
