Yunost club is easy to find. Even if a huge signboard at Artyoma Street stays unnoticed, an enormous line of people leads you straight to the entrance.
Yunost (Youth) opened its doors last November, and became a hit at once. The club was launched by the same team that opened a popular outdoor club Green Theater that only functions in summer.
When I went to check out Yunost on a Saturday night, the fee was Hr 100 for me and Hr 60 for students around. Instead of a usual hand stamp, I’ve got a piece of plastic that I gave out to the guards a second later, so I had no chance to go out to meet somebody and come back if I had to.
The red corridor led me to the wardrobe and then up to the blue lounge bar with foosball and low sofas. The bar appeared to be quite affordable. Hr 30 beer and Hr 55 whisky-cola came as a pleasant surprise. Several cocktails bare the Soviet-related names, adding to the venue’s general Soviet stylization.
Electronic music with vocal was accompanied by spacecraft-psychedelic videos. The real party began after midnight, when audience was done with cocktails. Dancing and posing to the photographers, a few girls stumbled at the tricky non-illuminated ladder.
To still hunger after the dances, menu offers a range of sandwiches. I ordered the one called “Colossal Hamburger” for Hr 59, and it appeared to be large and substantial meal with chips. As for the bathroom, it was clean and rainbow-decorated, but quite small.
Looking around, it’s almost impossible to find anyone older than 20, unless it’s someone who works at the club. It seemed that people knew each other as if they were on a private party. Dressing up for this place would be a mistake. On a Saturday night people around me looked like they stopped by this club after the classes.
For some reason, only part of the bar menu was translated into English. Cocktails and sandwiches were listed in Russian only. I noticed people going upstairs and wondered where they headed to, since both lounge bar and dance floor areas were on the first floor. Turns out, the second floor is a smoking area, where people can have a cigarette without going outside. Mobile network coverage turned out to be poor inside the club.
Yunost corresponds to its name. The club provides nice music and original cocktails at low prices, but there is always a risk to find yourself being an old man at a students’ party.
