Collect a bit of appetite and a wish to listen to live music.
Create a need to relax and cultivate an anxiety to enjoy White Nights in the spring.
With a little energy and a little money in your wallet, you don't have to visit St Petersburg in the summer to feel the magnificence of its famous White Nights.
The restaurant, Beliye Nochi (White Nights), can offer you the same feeling.
Certainly, we left feeling alive with the joys of the White Nights season after our visit one evening in early spring.
They were hard feelings to explain, yet its rich but inexpensive dishes, hospitable servers, spacious hall and a generally cool atmosphere filled us with dreams of White Nights.
We were met by a policeman at the entrance.
Instead of "chasing customers away" as someone would expect from "committed" law enforcers, this one seemed to be a cop who had been well- trained for the Russia's new market economy.
His ever-present smile and a gesture of welcome showed he had a warm heart.
No sooner had my dining mate and I taken a seat when the two musicians started playing a variety of English and Russian numbers.
Scattered here and there were various diners, but the musicians acted as if to dedicate the music to us.
I have to admit that I felt embarrassed when they looked at us while playing, as if asking for a tip.
But looking at the rich menu, written only in Russian, I decided to ignore the musicians and make up my mind on which dishes to choose.
I decided to get serious with my starter of a 19,900-rouble vegetable salad, which I enjoyed.
By the time my mate was finishing her 38,900-rouble dish of black caviar, I noticed that the musicians were disappointed.
They raised the volume to the maximum, perhaps to scare us.
I ordered beef shashlik for 39,000 roubles, which came in a big portion with a mixture of potatoes and vegetables that I ate to my fill.
My dining mate was watching her weight and would not order more, only a glass of pineapple juice at 8,500 roubles.
At this time I felt we should tip the musicians 5,000 roubles to stop them from making noise.
After an hour and a half and finishing the last drop of pineapple juice, we decided to leave.
There was a variety of desserts, including Irish coffee for 16,000 roubles.
There was also a variety of cocktails, but we didn't try one.
"Brandy-fix" cost 15,000 roubles per 125 grams, "Masquerade" liquor, 14,500 roubles per 100 grams, and "Zapal" (red Martini with orange juice and Gin) for 11,000 roubles.
All in all, we spent about 150,000 roubles.
The place is worth visiting, but foreigners who want to be left in peace should make sure they are not noticed by the musicians because, in the long run, customers have to pay a 10% service charge anyway.