After the long, lonely walk down questionable streets, three-quarters of a mile from the N train across the urban tundra of far west Queens, with an icy wind throwing its needles at your face and nothing that could ever make you warm again, there, waiting to take you in, is Bear.
In a moment there is vodka on the table, chilled and decanted into a charming little bottle, and a silver platter laden with leaf-shaped plates and miniature pots of snacks from another empire: salo, creamy fatback cured in-house, with rye bread fried in sunflower oil; slivers of roasted apple and potato, preening with duck fat; herring in a low jar, pickled and bracing; and a deviled egg swagged in salmon roe, with a heart of whipped smoked sprats.
Tucked under the salo and rye is a chapbook of Russian poems, bound in twine. The translator turns out to be the young, soft-spoken waiter, Alex Pogrebinsky, who runs Bear with his older sister, Natasha. They come from Kiev by way of Cleveland, where their family settled as refugees after fleeing the Soviet Union in 1991. They opened Bear a year and a half ago on this remote block, and make up nearly its entire staff: Mr. Pogrebinsky ferries plates and mixes drinks named after favorite poems by Lermontov, while Ms. Pogrebinsky, formerly the chef at the Castello Plan, cooks every order.
Her palette of flavors is distinctly Eastern European, with little intervention by citrus or sweetness. Mushrooms are cooked down for hours, then roasted with sour cream, onion and dill until they achieve gaminess. Goat, lamb and beef are sloshed with red wine, amiably collapsing. This is food for winter.
But it is not peasant food, for here is scallop ceviche, the pale flesh stained orange by salmon roe and thatched with shredded apple, served on a recent evening as part of a seven-course tasting menu that must be requested in advance. (It is that rare tasting menu that teases rather than gluts, and makes you feel that the chef is cooking just for you, which she is.)
Even the stodgier Slavic dishes are surprisingly delicate. In a streamlined version of kulebyaka, traditionally a layered fish pie, there are no layers, simply a cod fillet sheathed in brik dough, which fries to a crisp without flaking. The result looks like a sleek egg roll.
One night, veal dumplings, in a tasting portion, were improbably ethereal; on another, ordered off the menu, they were sluggards. Ms. Pogrebinsky later explained that for the tasting menu she had cultured her own smetana — thick, yogurtlike Russian sour cream, whose extra tanginess balances the caramelized onions in the sauce. It mattered.
There are moments of confusion: the invisible duck, buried under roasted apples and potatoes in a ruffle-edged tart pan (although when you find it, it is cooked perfectly); borscht, made with a tomato-based broth, translucent and gentle when you crave voluptuousness; and the Parker House rolls, presented at the start of the meal, with their whiff of Thanksgiving. But these mysteries are part of the journey.
The space is somewhere between a nightclub and a living room. Gleaming ingots of Swarovski crystal cast colored lights over black leather banquettes. Books lean in corners. Big-headed roses pose on tables, as if in imitation of the cloudy still lifes of roses that adorn the wall, painted by Alex and Natasha’s father. The soundtrack veers from techno swing to Tarantino-esque arcana. It grows on you.
A true explorer would not leave without braving the Demon, a cocktail with no counterpart I know of on this earth. It starts out as a Russian coffee, spiked with vodka, then goes off the deep end, with slugs of gin, whiskey and vermouth, all funneled into a chalice and served with a spoon of sugar set on fire. (In America, we call this a bachelorette party.)
Outside await the jaws of winter. One last shot of vodka, then. Borrow a line from Anna Akhmatova and toast “the world, that’s brusque and brutal.” It is like swallowing the sun.
Bear
12-14 31st Avenue (12th Street), Long Island City, Queens; (917) 396-4939; bearnyc.com
RECOMMENDED Seven-course chef’s tasting menu (pre-order required); vodka and zakuski platter (pre-order required); hunter’s stew; mushroom stroganoff; roasted duck with apples; veal dumplings.
PRICES $4 to $25.
OPEN Dinner nightly, brunch Saturday and Sunday.
RESERVATIONS Accepted.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Entrance is level with sidewalk. Restroom is spacious and equipped with handrail.
