It’s not difficult to recall a couple of such places in New York or London, but for Muscovites the very idea of setting up a designated shop selling organic food straight from farms still sounds like a dream. There hasn’t been a massive food revolution in this country since the Soviet’s ubiquitous deficit, and the idea of a healthy diet is usually associated with sport medicine or fat-free menus in glitzy restaurants.
However, sometimes, dreams come true – and today we have ‘Lavka’ – the first shop and cafe in Moscow focused on natural, sustainable food. This project was set up Boris Akimov (former journalist) and Vasily Palshin (previously distributing fashion clothes) who were ‘fed up’ with junk ready meals from supermarkets and decided that the time for the actions had arrived. They have bypassed all remaining farms around Moscow and dug out the whole bunch of suppliers who were more than happy to sell their fresh vegetables and meat beyond street markets.
The project quickly became a new city landmark. ‘Lavka’ has thousands of clients every day. Boris and Vasily serve traditional Russian farm food in their cafe, publish a newspaper dedicated to healthy living and plan to buy their own farm this summer.
