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# While Moscow plunges into the raging art scene, Saint Petersburg calmly opens the autumn social season
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/poka-moskva-okunaetsia-v-bushuiushchuiu-art-sredu-sankt-peterburg-razmerenno-otkryvaet-osennii-svetskii-sezon/
- Published: 2025-09-13T10:28:21.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:28:44.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Mores, Saint Petersburg, Society Pages

While Moscow plunges into the raging art scene, Saint Petersburg calmly opens the autumn social season. And in the history of Petersburg, as you know, the society dinner was always more than a mere taking of nourishment: it was a form of conversation, a platform for ideas and a place where culture meets society. Yesterday evening at "Podpisnye Izdaniya" merely confirmed this tradition, when the bookshop on Liteyny suddenly became a Petersburg drawing room.

The occasion was the presentation of Yulia Demidenko's book on the city's restaurants and taverns, but the main thing was the spirit of a salon, in which cultural celebrities absorbed the atmosphere and the flavour of that very Petersburg. Chef Yevgeny Vikentyev treated the guests to a set menu alluding to the pages of the book. Each course was accompanied by cocktails based on Dewar's, a contemporary take on the classical culture of food pairing.

Among the recognisable silhouettes against the backdrop of the bookshelves were Pokras Lampas, Irina Oganova and Vladimir Varnava. Their conversations, smiles and unhurried gestures lent the evening that very glossy texture which in Petersburg is always perceived as perfectly natural.

The guests' society chatter continued in the format of a party with a DJ set, something that would have been unthinkable in the nineteenth century, yet today fits organically into the cultural script. And that is Petersburg all over: the ability to preserve the dignity of tradition while opening it to new forms

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