not time of restaurants

Serey Mironov: "Today is not the time of restaurants"
Restaurant Sergey Mironov about the main elements of restaurants "Meat & Fish," lack of profitability of business and rigour of franchise.

Sergei, why are your restaurants two names - "Meat & Fish" and "Meat & Fish"? It 's a little confusing, are they different?

I will explain to you. Two names are registered: "Meat & Fish" and "Meat & Fish." Meat & Fish is patented on the territory of the Russian Federation, and Meat & Fish is patented in different countries, including the United States. The name "Meat & Fish" hangs on one of the restaurants in Moscow to make the trademark work, otherwise it can be lost.
What is the feature of "Meat & Fish"?

Every Meat & Fish restaurant is a kind of 2-in-1. We connected steak and fish house under one roof, divided the space into conditional "fish" and "meat" zones. Two monoproducts, two menus in one. Let 's say you like to go to a steak house, gather with your girlfriends and call them there, and they don 't want to. "Meat for the night is harmful, we would eat fish." And that 's how your favorite restaurant doesn 't become a place to sit down with friends. On the one hand, monoproduct is good, such restaurants are trusted, but on the other hand, there is rarely a company that would like to eat the same thing. Turns out it 's the Achilles heel of such establishments. By connecting meat and fish, we shot all the bunnies, so we became a restaurant for any taste.

It is the main counter?

Not only this. What will make you go to the restaurant to eat meat? Of course price and quality. We sell high-end meat at an affordable price. Even the store can be compared. Steak Ribai Prime of the highest category there costs 2000 rubles. Come to us - we have 1970. You understand that there you have to buy, fry, and in the restaurant you will be ready steak for a lower price.

It 's convenient that you don 't have to cook.

Yes. Next moment. All menus gastronomichno. It is complex, with a large set of sauces, marinades. Our menu is not invented by the chef, as it usually happens, but collected by me around the world. I drive, find the best dishes in different countries, and then I apply these hits at us.

You don 't ignore the menu personally?

Yes, of course. I invent, we consult with the brand-chief, we adapt everything, and then he implements it. And the guest comes to the restaurant not just to eat, namely to try something unusual and interesting. We have our own ways of making steaks. And to meat we recommend, for example, our brand list sauce. It 's been cooking for 16 hours! You eat a product you 've worked from start to finish. It 's not like that at home. It is technology.
What about the trendy HRA today?

Here 's the next thing. For example, we have a Norwegian semga excluded. It is stuffed with antibiotics, fed with mixed fodders, which contain the whole Mendeleev table. Of course, the harm is not proven, but there is no benefit from such a semga. We have exceptionally wild fish. It 's very important to me. My restaurants eat my friends, my family. We have everything done as for ourselves.

What with desserts?

How do steak houses usually work with confectionery? Bought ready-made frozen desserts, unfreezed and served to guests. We have full-fledged powerful confectionery shops. Every dessert is a work of art. It 's not profitable, but we make a good restaurant. Everything means reasonably. And by the way, we 're gonna shut up about coffee, too. We have expensive coffee machines and professional barista who cook coffee no worse than in specialized coffee shops.

What for? Do they go to you purposefully to drink coffee?

No, but often guests finish their dinner with dessert and a cup of coffee. We can 't disappoint them at the end of dinner.

What alcoholic policy?

We have about 200 positions of wine, of which 33 positions go to bottling. And prices aren 't inflated. We allow you to come with your wine, we are guest-oriented and loyal to it. All you have to do is bring a check and show it to the manager or waiter so that there are no questions when checking. So often it happens that the wine brought by guests, at us on the menu costs cheaper.

Maybe you can bring your own food?

No, you can 't eat, it 's too much risk.

And there 's no problem with the franchise? Do you often have to justify someone else 's restaurant?

We have very strict franchise rules, we completely check and control everything. We always help with implementation. Very rarely there are any nuances.

Recently there have been fewer restaurants and more fast food cafes, there are problems in business?

It 's not restaurant time. If I started my business right now, I would give up that idea. It is not profitable absolutely. High taxes, difficult food situation, financial capacity of the population decreased. It makes no sense to do something more fast food until we have laws revised in the country. A huge amount of pitfalls. I 'm a professional, I know this business from the beginning to the end, but even I find it difficult to earn on it. Until 2014 it was easier.

And what exactly interferes with business?

Restaurant business is difficult under the current system of taxation. It needs to be changed. If you take a loan for a restaurant business, let 's say in Barcelona, you pay top 1%, we have 18 at best.

VAT of 20% very much prevents our restaurant industry from developing.

Today the entrepreneur, whose restaurant is on a simplified system of taxation, can work up to revenues of 150 million rubles. And as soon as the restaurant makes its 151st million, it moves into the category of people on the common system of taxation and pays VAT. And if the difference between the simplified system of taxation and the common in other industries is not very large, in the restaurant business it is global. And the problem is that the restaurant has practically no incoming VAT. Suppliers are ISPs that have no VAT at all. And the small VAT that is, it is only from agriculture, which has this tax only 10%. Therefore, there is no set-off, and in case of annual revenues no longer in 150, but in 151-152 million rubles the entrepreneur immediately loses 15% of turnover. Even though he has a profit of 7-8% at best. And at the loss of 15 it is guaranteed to go to a very big minus. Of course, this very much interferes with the development of the industry, the development of serious gastronomic restaurants, the discoveries of the second, third and next restaurants. Investors are not investing in this, and the industry is unfortunately sedating. If the situation does not change, in a few years we risk being left without restaurants at all.

If the restaurant began to cause only losses, your actions? Will you close?

I 'm primarily an anti-crisis management specialist. He was involved in restaurant consulting for many years. I can assess the situation sober. Understand, disassemble, and eventually either correct, make global changes, such as rebranding, or close. Seldom I am mistaken.

How do you see the future of Meat & Fish? Is there, given the above?

I am already developing, having invested so much effort and money, there is no point in closing. The brand is already working and competitive. I want 500 restaurants around the world: 12- in Moscow, 30 in Russia, the rest in Europe and America. And abroad my restaurants are much more profitable than in the Russian Federation.

Which restaurants in your opinion set a high and professional level?

Here it is necessary to talk either about gastronomy, or about business. Let 's talk business. This is definitely Timur Lansky. He realized his restaurants well, did not stop at "Chaihon," goes further and develops other concepts. Of course, it is the patriarch of our restaurant business - Rostov Ordovsky-Tanayevsky Blanco with his Rosinter. In fact, it is one of the first schools. Andrei Dellos: from "Pushkin" to "Matreska" - good bright landmark projects. And, of course, Arkadiy Novikov with his hundred restaurants. It 's very difficult to create multi-brand formats when you open completely diverse restaurants at the same time. There are quite a lot of strong restaurants.

When you go to your restaurants, do you feel like a host or a guest?

I 'm the owner of the idea, not the restaurant. I 'm a guest despite interfering with management as we have tight franchise rules. I feel like a guest, I cry, I leave a tip and so on.

What do you prefer: meat or fish?

I eat both. But more often fish, as it is more useful. I love a chinook. It is the main sea salmon fish, somehow undervalued in our country.

But you studied as a lawyer, why did you choose the restaurant business? You didn 't want to be a lawyer?

Wanted, very much wanted. So it turned out that while studied, began to work in restaurants. He started with an assistant bartender. Then worked as the bartender, the manager, the managing director. By the time I finished law school, I was the director of two restaurants. And I decided that I am not ready to leave this activity and start everything from scratch in another profession.

You teach students why? Do you have time for that?

Just for that time should always be. I believe that if you take from the restaurant market, you should therefore give something away. I give knowledge. The market needs to be made cost-effective. My horse isn 't lectures, it 's practice. My students still study in our restaurants, get a great chance to learn the profession from within. The most capable can then, if they want, and stay with us, not to the detriment of study, naturally.

I will ask about personal. Are married? There are children? Follow in your footsteps?

He is married, two children. The older daughter is 22 years old. She worked in a restaurant as a waitress, a sommelier, and an administrator. But I haven 't decided on a profession yet, looking for myself.

In your opinion, business and creativity are compatible?

Business and creativity are united. When you create a concept, you can 't do without creativity. I am a perfectionist.

What 's your mission?

Sounds too grandiloquently. Nevertheless. I want to prove to the world that the Russian restaurant is competitive. Open up abroad, declare ourselves there and show in this way that we are strong and we can be loved and chosen by guests.

You never wanted to move abroad?

I have a lot of foreign job offers, but I 'm a patriot.

Наверх
Заголовок страницы Контент сайта