A Russian exile rebounds

LONDON: Evgeny Chichvarkin has been many things over the past two decades: a bilaire mobile phone retailer, a jetsetter who plays polo with princes, a wanted man in his native Russia, a political exile. These days he’s a shopkeeper – though at the kind of venture you’d expect from a man with his resume: a store with more than US$20mil worth of wine and spirits and customers that include A-list celebs such as David Beckham and Mark Walhberg.

Chichvarkin, 44, owns Hedonism, an over-the-top emporium that has shaken London’s staid wine scene since it opened in 2012. The place has a giddy, funhouse atmosphere. A chandelier of Riedel wine glasses hangs over a cast-iron staircase.