While New York rocked to the most expensive Super Bowl party, Moscow raised a toast to the most expensive cocktail. The $50,000 cocktail was launched to mark the opening of the city’s first-ever ice terrace with a bar at Reka Moscow restaurant.
This most expensive alcoholic beverage was bought by the restaurant’s regular guest and a successful entrepreneur, Andrei Melnikov. The price-raising ingredients of this over-the-top cocktail are three one and 1.5-carat diamonds provided by the event’s jewelry sponsor, Crivelli.
Opened on 31st January, the Winter Terrace at Reka Moscow is fashioned entirely out of ice by leading ice-sculptors. They claim to have shipped in 200 tons of pure Siberian ice to create this living masterpiece. Those who haven’t been able to raise a toast with the most expensive cocktail can opt for other Hennessey VSOP cocktails at a bar chiselled out of ice, by BMW designer Chris Bengle, while sitting on an ice stool. Don’t shiver at the thought of being surrounded by all ice as the restaurant has installed a special infrared heating system to keep the guests warm in their ice-sculpted kingdom.
Winter Terrace at Reka Moscow was conceptualized by Michel Lombardi, Reka Moscow’s head chef, to give a chance to Moscow’s high society the chance to eat out for a change. He states, “I like adventures. My whole career has been an adventure – not least of which was my move to Russia. The harsh winters, adjusting to a new culture and especially to life in the kitchen here – it all was a challenge. But now, just two years later, I feel completely at home. My feeling is that an ice terrace suits the country of Russia, a land of snow and ice. And we have gone out of our way to create something really special, something which will make Muscovites who are used to the best stop and say: Wow, this is amazing!”
