Big Apple brews: The Hudson

In addition to Hudson Deli, another establishment named after the New York waterway has just opened in Moscow: The Hudson. Based on its bonafides, the new bar and restaurant seems poised for success as an expat hangout. It’s got a set of experienced expat owners; a standard menu of American and European bar classics; and a prime location in the financial district at Belorusskaya, perfect for picking up thirsty after-five office workers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte. If all of this sounds good to you, and you can stand some so-so bar food, The Hudson is your spot. If you’re looking for something more than a simple calorie infusion, it may be best to stick to the drinks. The words “New Yorkinspired” can come with a familiar checklist of decorating cliches (black-and-white photos of the Brooklyn bridge, anyone?), but The Hudson mostly manages to avoid them. Its classic interior feels like a good watering hole should, with a long bar, elegant black finishing, snazzy tiled flooring, and a mixture of tables, booths and high-tops. The selection at the bar is reasonable, with nine beers on tap (150 rubles for Bud and Grolsch, going up to 350 rubles for a Guinness), six types of tequila and the usual vodka assortment. The menu, too, is safe but sound, offering large portions of nachos, pizza, burgers, sandwiches and other age-old bar grub. On a recent Thursday evening, the place was filled with a sizable crowd of necktie-loosened Russians and expats tuning in to the hockey game – and soaking in the 30 percentoff happy hour deal that lasts until 7 p.m. Discounted drinks in hand and the game on TV, we settled in for an evening of pleasant dissipation. After a long wait, the heaviest items arrived first. The fish of our fish and chips came wrapped in a newspaper like a mummy – an homage to the dish’s street-food roots, but one that wasn’t presented right for eating. After unpacking the bulky sheets of paper to unearth the food, we were unsure where to discard them. The fish was a straightforward rendition: no tweaks like seasoning in the breading, but the fillets were hot and crisp, and the fish was meaty. Fries, on the other hand, were iffy in a way that no amount of alcohol could disguise. The skin-on wedges were grayish, soggy and barely salted – leaving the impression that they’d been sitting out for a while before a quick reheating readied them for our table. They stayed in their pile. The food continued to be a mixed bag. Veggie pizza looked like a New York-style pie should: big, cheesy and with a crust that’s closer to thick and foldable than thin and crispy. And happily, it came fully loaded with mushrooms, green peppers, red onions, artichokes, tomatoes and basil. But the tomato sauce was curiously sweet, adding an off note to what was otherwise a snack-able plate of food. A club sandwich was perfectly respectable. Triangles of thin, toasted white bread held layers of ham, chicken, bacon, cheese, tomato, lettuce and fried egg skewered along a stick. What sounds like a possibly overwhelming lineup of sandwich innards tasted surprisingly light and fresh, though the plate was sullied by the reappearance of the sad fries. The low point came with a plate of cheese sticks, indifferently served last. Good cheese sticks should be crispy on the outside and silky on the inside, but this ensemble tasted like it was made by someone who’d never had them – and maybe hadn’t bothered to sample this particular plate of food. The limp sticks had thin and mushy breading, and a grayish patina reminiscent of the fries. They weren’t helped by the sickly sweet chili sauce on the side, which tasted like something an English grandmother might spread on her morning toast. How much should the food matter at a bar? If we’re dulling our senses with booze, should we care what goes down our gullets? You could go to The Hudson, have a couple of beers, watch the game and leave happy. But the somewhat dubious food we sampled was hard to excuse from people who should know better – and wouldn’t cut it in Manhattan. 10 Butyrsky Val, (495) 212 0454, m. Belorusskaya, hudsonbar.ru Open daily, 1 pm until last visitor. From/moscownews