Peter, Elizabeth and Catherine: Why Our Soviet Pyshki Machines Carry Imperial Names

If you’ve already visited one of our pyshki cafés in St. Petersburg and taken a closer look at the Soviet machine cooking pyshki (the city’s hot yeast rings dusted with powdered sugar) right in front of you, you may have noticed something unexpected: each of them has a name, and the name of a Russian monarch at that. On Nevsky Prospekt, your pyshki are made by “Elizaveta Petrovna” (Empress Elizabeth). On Malaya Sadovaya St., “Ekaterina Alekseevna” (Catherine the Great) is at work. And on Moskovsky Prospekt, by Sennaya Square, stands “Pyotr Alekseevich” (Peter the Great).

Guests sometimes ask whether it’s a joke. It isn’t; we mean it. So let us happily tell you where these names came from, why we chose these three and why each one suits its café so well. It’s a short, warm story with a couple of coincidences that still make us smile.

A quick note first: Pyshki iz Detstva® (“Pyshki from Childhood”) cooks on genuine Soviet machines, restored by hand, and makes the pyshki where you can watch. The names mean something to us: they’re how we treat each machine as a living part of the city’s story. But let’s take things one at a time.

“Elizaveta Petrovna” · 118 Nevsky Prospekt, by Vosstaniya Square

The daughter of Peter I, and the empress under whom St. Petersburg blossomed and grew more beautiful: the Winter Palace, Smolny Cathedral, the baroque, elegant, festive city are in large part her doing. Elizaveta Petrovna is remembered as a cheerful ruler who loved balls, fine gowns and the joy of life. Charming in a truly Petersburg way: it seemed to us that a name like hers naturally belongs to a light, warm place.

And “Elizaveta Petrovna” stands by Vosstaniya Square, directly opposite Moskovsky railway station. This is the gateway to the city: this is where you arrive and where your St. Petersburg begins. You step off the train, cross the square, and the first thing to greet you is a warm pyshka, fresh from the fryer. We like to think that guests at the city gates are welcomed by an empress herself, with a smile and no queue at all.

So if you hear someone say “I’m off to see Elizabeth”, they mean 118 Nevsky Prospekt.

“Ekaterina Alekseevna” · 1/25 Malaya Sadovaya St., by Gostiny Dvor

Catherine II, Catherine the Great, is probably Russia’s most famous empress. Under her, the country expanded, the sciences and arts flourished, and St. Petersburg finally became a dazzling European capital. The name is a stately one, and yet it carries that same warmth of a good host: Catherine loved her city and knew how to look after it.

And now for our favourite coincidence. The “Ekaterina Alekseevna” machine stands on Malaya Sadovaya St., just a few steps from Catherine Garden. In the middle of that garden stands the monument to Catherine II, the very one where people in St. Petersburg have been arranging to meet for a century and a half. So our “Catherine” is making pyshki right next door to the real Catherine. We didn’t plan it that way; we simply noticed one day and were delighted at how well it worked out.

Drop in at Malaya Sadovaya, then take ten steps to the garden and greet the empress in person. Or the other way round: first the monument, then the pyshki. Both Catherines will be glad to see you.

“Pyotr Alekseevich” · 2 Moskovsky Prospekt, by Sennaya Square

It all began with Peter. Peter I, Pyotr Alekseevich, the founder of St. Petersburg, the man who laid out a city where it seemed no city could ever stand. Without him there would be no Nevsky Prospekt, no Malaya Sadovaya and no us. That’s why we gave the founder’s name to our café in the old trading quarter of the city, by Sennaya Square.

“Pyotr Alekseevich” works at 2 Moskovsky Prospekt, by Sennaya Square, on the way to Sennoy Market. For centuries, Sennaya was a lively, bustling trading hub of St. Petersburg: something was always being sold, bought, carried, loaded and eaten on the go. It’s the historic heart of a hard-working city. And it feels right to us that here, in the thick of city life, stands a machine named after the man who set that life in motion.

Guests around Sennaya put it simply: “off to Peter’s”. Short, and respectful in true Petersburg style.

Why we name our pyshki machines at all

It’s simple, really. For us, a machine is a character in the story, with a fate of its own. Every one of our machines is genuinely Soviet: they stopped being made in 1991, no new ones are produced, and none can be made anymore. We tracked down the ones working in our cafés across the country, bought them and restored them by hand, unit by unit, carefully preserving the factory nameplate with the year of manufacture and the serial number.

A machine like that has its own year, its own road to us, its own temperament. One runs a little hotter, another is a bit more reserved, and the staff behind the counter can feel it. Giving it a name turned out to be the most honest way to tell that story. And the names of Russian monarchs add a link to St. Petersburg itself: the city, the machine and the pyshka come together into one story.

One more thing. Our machine isn’t hidden away in the kitchen. It stands in plain view, and the pyshki are made right in front of you. When a machine has a name and a personality, it’s even more fun to watch: you see the dough drop into the hot oil and, a minute later, ride down the “slide” as a finished pyshka, and you know it was made for you by Elizabeth, Catherine or Peter.

Guests join in the game straight away. “Catherine’s today”, “let’s drop in on Peter”, “the usual for me, at Elizabeth’s”: we hear this every day, and it makes us smile every time.

Come and meet them

You can read about emperors in a history book. But you can only meet Elizabeth, Catherine and Peter in person, at our cafés, over a hot pyshka. Each with its own name, its own year on the nameplate and its own personality.

Choose whom you’ll visit first. And, as we like to say, take one pyshka, but don’t wander too far: you’ll be back for more.

Choose a café and meet them in person →