“It was nothing like we thought it was going to be,” Chef Christopher Gross of Christopher’s and Crush Lounge says of his visit to the Russian capital with girlfriend Jamie Hormel. The city felt more cosmopolitan than Eastern Bloc, he found. “You have these pre-conclusions of the Soviet Union or whatever and it was very New York-ish. It’s a beautiful walking city.” We asked our culinary comrade to share some trip highlights.