The Ginzafication of Moscow’s dining scene continues with the opening of Ponton

Police-themed pub Scotland Yard serves up a whodunit on a platter

Lounge lizards feel at home in the new bar Duplo

Get a primer in Georgian dining thrown in for the price of a meal at Saperavi

The Arbat’s new Irish pub Harat’s hails not from the Emerald Isle, but from Siberia

Extreme dining and comfort food are both on the menu at Armenian restaurant Gayane’s

Try Caucasus cuisine in a modern Moscow interpretation at Khorosho Sidim

The food may be hit-and-miss but the drinks are on target at Tequila Bar & Boom

An old industrial area hides one of the city’s best-kept gastronomic secrets at Jimmy’s Pub

Exotic, spicy delicacies and rare kinds of tequila at Casa Agave

The Radisson Royal Flotilla of yacht-restaurants now has a new pier in Gorky Park.

The pier, on Pushkinskaya Naberezhnaya, is the launching point for a new cruise route, in addition to the original route from the Radisson Royal Moscow hotel (formerly the Ukraina).

Cruises last two-and-a-half to three hours, and cost 900 rubles for adults, or 650 rubles for children, with food and drinks costing extra.

The Big Moscow International Beer Festival is returning this year, with a three-day celebration planned for June 8-10, 2012.

Beer lovers were disappointed in 2011, when the traditional festival at Luzhniki was cancelled. The venue this year will be different – Crocus Expo, in the city’s outer northern suburbs.

Concerts, competitions, degustations and much more is promised – including live telecasts of the European football championships.

See www.beer-festival.ru

Moscow’s so-called “navigation season” opened on Friday, April 20, with 20 riverboats plying the river between Kievsky station and Novospassky bridge every 20 minutes.

Prices remain the same as last year: a single ride costs 400 rubles for adults or 150 rubles for children, and multi-ride all-day passes cost 800 rubles for adults or 200 rubles for children.

Additional routes outside the city center are to begin later in the season, including a couple of new ones – a hydrofoil from Pechatniki to Gorky Park, and a riverboat cruise around the “Golden Island” near Christ the Saviour Cathedral.

The All-Russia Exhibition Centre or VVTs turned on its fountains on April 12, defying poor weather that had cast serious doubts on whether the annual event could take place on time.

The exhibition complex has turned on its iconic fountains on April 12 – Cosmonautics Day – every year since 1964, but winter’s unrelenting grip on Moscow this year had sparked talk of a postponement.

Nonetheless, slight warming in the past week and a flurry of activity by VVTs workers meant the waters were able to flow on time, even with snow still on the ground.

Watch a video of the event here.

Beer lovers visiting the Russian capital now have an extra spot to add to their sight-seeing itinerary.

Moskovskaya Pivovarennaya Kompaniya, or the Moscow Brewing Company, has introduced English-language tours of its production plant, totally free of charge – including transport to and from the metro and a beer-tasting session.

The brewery, located at Mytishchi in Moscow’s outer northern suburbs, produces the popular Zhiguli Barnoye beer, which won a gold medal in the Bohemia-style Pilsner category at the European Beer Star 2011 awards in Nuremberg, Germany. It also produces Mospivo and Moskvas, as well as many foreign brands under licence including Faxe, Oettinger and Kirin.

Read more here.

Travel back in time to 1930s Moscow at an interactive multimedia exhibition in the newly reconstructed Moskva hotel building.

While the hotel next to Red Square has yet to open, the shopping mall on the lower levels is already functioning. Among the glitzy new boutiques is the exhibition “Epokha Svetlogo Zavtra” (Epoch of the Bright Tomorrow), a collage of memorabilia to promote a new movie but still a fascinating exposition nonetheless.

Stalin and Lenin statues with their speeches via headsets, period clothing, propaganda posters, a vintage television set, a movie hall showing films of the era and 3D images of how Moscow would have looked had some grandiose building projects come to fruition are just a few of the highlights.

The exhibition runs until April 20.

Free wi-fi internet access is now available on the Moscow metro’s ring line.

In a pilot project by cellular provider MTS jointly with Moscow’s IT and transport departments, wi-fi access points have been installed in all 180 wagons travelling around the circular line. The ring line stations have also been equipped with wi-fi hot spots.

Two other cellular providers, Vimpelcom and Megafon, have also set up free wi-fi networks on the red Sokolnichesky and grey Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevsky lines, RIA Novosti reported, adding that the city government is to make a decision on extending the service to the entire metro network in two to three months.

The Moscow Tourism Committee has launched an online travel portal called the Official Moscow Guide at http://en.travel2moscow.com/

The site includes practical information about visas, transport, accommodation, excursions, cultural events, sights, sports and recreation, restaurants, bars, clubs and more.

It is currently in two languages – Russian and English – but there are plans to expand the number of languages in future.

Moscow is to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 with a parade on Ulitsa Arbat.

Organisers say there will be a carnival procession along the pedestrian-only “Old” Arbat from midday to 5 pm on Saturday. A stage will be set up on the street for live music by guest performers visiting from Ireland as well as local acts, many of whom are also to perform at the evening’s gala concert, which kicks off at 5 pm in the Moskva hall at Triumfalnaya Ploshchad.

The city’s Paddy’s Day parade was traditionally held on the nearby Novy (New) Arbat, but two years ago it was moved to a different location and last year there was no official parade at all, although thousands gathered on Ulitsa Arbat for an unofficial celebration.

For the full programme of Irish Week events, see www.saint-patrick.ru.