Top Hop
Craft beer from all over the world.
Let’s do a quick test: How many brands of beer can you list off the top of your head? Go on, give it a try. If you run out of names after a dozen or so, Top Hop is where you go to widen your horizon. Yes, there are four TV screens, but more importantly, there are also 40 kinds of beer on tap. Your basic lagers and stouts are well-covered, then there’s a strawberry-flavored one no doubt invented by Belgian monks and a grapefruit-infused Weizen from the south of Germany — you name it, and they’ll probably have it. A couple of months ago, they even added a Dutch “hazelnut cupcake” beer to their menu, which boasts notes of nuts, marshmallows, vanilla, licorice, coconut and cocoa. If that’s too weird for you, check out their long list of burgers, some of them traditional, some odd and intriguing. So what if Italy didn’t qualify for the World Cup? At least here you can have a vitello tonnato burger in their honor.
Ulitsa Baumana, 36. vk.com/tophopbar
Khmelnaya
German beer garden style.
Located in Kazan’s southeastern Gorki district, this is one of five restaurants and cafés in the Turgay restaurant complex. With 220 seats, Khmelnaya is also the largest of the lot. It’s supposed to remind you of a German beer garden, so expect Krombacher, Paulaner, Franziskaner, Löwenbräu and Schöfferhofer beers and waitresses in dirndl dresses. They regularly offer “three for the price of two” deals on some brands of beer, meaning you’ll pay around 600 rubles for three 0.5-liter beers. This turns drinking with friends into a legitimate money-saving strategy, so if you are traveling on your own, well: Time to meet some new people from among your fellow football fans! Get your joint beer order in, add a sharing plate of homemade sausages while you’re at it, and soon you’ll all be shouting at the referee in unison. That’s what we call a result!
Ulitsa Yuliusa Fuchika, 64/3. turgai-kazan.ru/hmelnaya/restaurant/4
