The traditional Russian restaurant 'A la Ville de Petrograd', founded by an officer of Nicholas II's guard in 1924, is located opposite one of the most beautiful Russian Orthodox churches in Paris, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. This church, which became a place of worship, welcomed many Russians after the 1917 revolution and created a true little Slavic neighborhood filled with nostalgia.

Among the secular events associated with the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, one can note the marriage of Picasso and Russian dancer Olga Khokhlova in 1918, with witnesses including Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, and Guillaume Apollinaire, as well as the funerals of Turgenev in 1883 and Kandinsky in 1944.

The establishment A la Ville de Petrograd, opened in 1924, was initially just a grocery store and bar. It became an important meeting place for Russian émigrés, maintaining a connection with their homeland.

From the 1980s until 2000, the restaurant also functioned as a cabaret. It was frequented by Russian aristocracy, movie stars such as Catherine Deneuve and Claudia Cardinale, as well as singers including Charles Aznavour and Yannick Noah. The establishment is valued for its warm welcome and its musicians, who immerse guests in the atmosphere of the Russian world in the evenings.