A year ago during Christmas week, I ended a day on the Sonoma Coast with a vist to Russian House #1 in Jenner.
On the Russian River, the restaurant features a daily buffet of mostly vegetarian but did have one meated dish this day, turkey with wild mushroom gravy. The mushrooms were foraged locally but I was not ready to trust these cooks, so I did not try it. I was very full anyway and sampled only the hot borscht and the buttermilk pancakes.
The borscht was really good with long shreds of beet and carrot, chunks of skin-on potatoes and spiced with cloves and green cardamon. The pancakes were pleasantly sour, but would have been better hot. No pelmeni nor piroshki this time.
There are no prices. The place is famous for relying on an honor system for diners to pay what they feel the value is either by cash or self-serve credit card. Apparently, this is not enough to support the organization and it has recently launched a Patreon monthly subscription.
Not able to renew its lease, Russian House #1 will close after December 31.
WaPo offers a lovely tribute, "Borscht, pierogi and community: A revolutionary Russian restaurant nears its last days" https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2...
What a lovely surprise to see this tribute here. We actually stopped and had dinner at Russian House last weekend when we were in Jenner. Delicious chicken and soup, and a rejuvenating Russian tea. The owner let our two littles ones try out the harps. We picked up a copy of the cookbook and are excited to try out some of the dishes.
We actually ate at this location back in 2005 when the former restaurant was "Sizzling Tandoor."
So sorry that this was our first and last time at Russian House!
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