WILLIAMSBURG — A Russian-themed restaurant and bar opening in Williamsburg will have 22 drinks on tap — including six homemade flavored vodkas to take as shots.
Vitaly and Maria Sherman, the couple behind popular store Beer Boutique, plan on opening their first bar and restaurant, Masha and the Bear, at 771 Grand St. and Humboldt Street after the holidays.
The couple from Russia thought the neighborhood lacked Russian cuisine and wanted to create a spot that focused on food and drink from their homeland.
The six vodkas on tap — all chilled at 38 degrees — will be flavored with Russian food in mind. Vodka types include borscht, hops and honey, wild berry and horseradish and will cost $5 to $6 per shot. One vodka tap will also be dedicated to seasonal tastes like cranberry or pumpkin.
The Shermans make the flavored vodkas with liquor from the Catskill Distilling Company.
For the authentic Russian experience, Vitaly Sherman recommends that customers take vodka shots as they eat their food.
"Vodka clears your taste buds," he said. "Your taste buds will experience flavors you never knew."
After the vodka shot clears the taste buds, a bite of food will replace the sharp alcohol flavor in the mouth, he said. Then, you just breathe.
"You taste nothing that people don’t like about vodka," he said. "You only get the benefit of vodka."
Though cocktails are not traditionally Russian, Masha and the Bear will offer several mixed drinks featuring the flavored vodkas, including "very, very interesting bloody marys," Sherman said.
And the Shermans are also still beer people. Twelve of the taps will offer beer, and four of the taps will be wine.
The food menu features Russian classics like borscht, a beet-based soup, and pelmeni, a Russian dumpling, with dishes costing $10 to $15. The Shermans also plan to have 60 sidewalk cafe seats in the warmer months.
Eventually, the Shermans want to host events like vodka and beer tastings, or checkers tournaments where each checker counts as a vodka shot.
"It’s Russian cuisine, but it’s not a Russian restaurant," Sherman said. "It's a restaurant for everybody."
