A day off in the Almaty district: come over for breakfast or order it home

On weekdays, the whole map of the city lies between the Almaty district and the left bank: work, school runs, the eternal 'some other time'. On a day off the map folds up. The alarm stays silent, nobody is late for anything, and a trip across the river stops being a feat — it becomes a small journey for the sake of a breakfast eaten slowly instead of on the run. We deeply respect that kind of expedition and know how to meet it: Frnds, Esil district, 25 Sagadat Nurmagambetov Street. People arrive here well-slept and leave even calmer.

Nobody here will announce that the kitchen has switched to the lunch menu. Morning at Frnds officially lasts from 09:00 to 23:00: you can order breakfast at one in the afternoon, at five, or right before closing. Woke up at noon, got ready without hurrying, drove over — you still made it, because here everybody makes it. And if someone in your crew is properly, grown-up hungry, the menu answers with pizza, pasta or soup: breakfast and lunch stand peacefully on the same table without arguing about which one is in charge.

There's another kind of day off, though — the kind where the very thought of crossing the city cancels the trip. That used to be the end of our story; now it's where the story starts: Frnds has its own delivery. Put an order together on WhatsApp at +7 707 480 92 15, and breakfast will arrive hot at your couch before the film reaches its middle. The couriers are our own, not rented from someone else's fleet, so the road is our responsibility too — not some dispatcher's.

And if you did make the trip — don't rush back. Take a seat at the big communal table, order a lemonade made on real fruit purée, or a milkshake, the kind that ends a breakfast the way good days ended in childhood. Let the day off move at the speed of a day off, not of a working week. What the room looks like and what's on the plates today is on Instagram at @frnds.kz — and the live version runs every day until eleven at night, no tickets required.

The Almaty district lies on the right bank, in the eastern part of Astana, and Frnds is across the river: left bank, Esil district, 25 Sagadat Nurmagambetov Street.