The Next Big Foodie City? Tbilisi

Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, once served as a commercial hub along the trade routes connecting the eastern and western worlds and its dual identity is still palpable today. The city’s medieval town center is a dense tangle of crooked homes, cobbled streets, and similarly vine-covered balconies piled onto a steep hillside. This section of town gives way to the majestic neoclassical facades of Rustaveli Avenue and a typical post-Soviet checkerboard of quiet dilapidation and hypercapitalist glam.

Though taverns and cafes abounded in 19th century Tiflis (as the city was officially known until 1936), private enterprises like these were shut down during the Soviet period. The food at state-owned canteens and banquet halls was, with a few notable exceptions, uninspiring and of poor quality. The best meals were served in the home, where families continued to devote disproportionate amounts of money and effort to procuring the ingredients for and preparing lavish feasts that urbanites in other parts of the Soviet Union could only dream of.