Gayane Breiova opened restaurants in Moscow, Prague and Yerevan. Her Gayane’s project with traditional Armenian cuisine works very successfully, and the “Cafe on the Stairs” did not close even for 15 minutes in 9 years of its existence. Gayane talked about strategic mistakes when opening a project abroad and explained why it is not always worth relying on her previous experience.
-Evgeny Lebedev: You were born in Yerevan?
-Gayane Breiova: Yes, and at 17 she moved, right after school.
-How did your restaurant history begin?
-When I was 17 years old, I pregnant left for Czechoslovakia, and then at 19, with a one-year-old baby in my arms, moved to Moscow. There I got into the restaurant business. First a waiter.
-It turns out that you started in Moscow with the lowest level of the restaurant career?
- I started with the most important step that is in the restaurant business. She worked for about a year and a half, after which she received a higher economic education. And then I already went to the office, because I studied as a broker. Stock exchange - sale of shares, bills. In 1998, there was a serious default, the Moscow stock exchange closed, and I fell under the reduction. Remembering that in the restaurant business I was really happy, I got a job as a manager in the Noah's Ark restaurant. And for 21 years, this business has not gone anywhere.
-Tell us about your first restaurant. When did you open it?
-In 2001. I had 2 partners.
- Did they open their money?
- No, I also had savings, and my spouse - at that time I married a second time, for a Czech. We had a project for three founders, 33.3% each.
-How was it called?
-Restaurant "Italian" on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.
-How many years did he live?
-He lives still, already 20 years. It works very well. In 2007 or 2008, I left this business and independently opened the “Cafe on the stairs”.
-This project lasted 9 years?
-Yes. And there I was already deployed in full, because I wanted to realize myself in all areas of business.
Was this your project purely?
- Yes, but I had partners who invested money.
- Is it true that for 9 years he never closed at night?
-Yes. It did not close even for 15 minutes for a technical break. The project was extremely successful. From the first month he was in the black, as I expected. It was at the peak of popularity in one period, 2006-2007, then profitability fell slightly, but despite this, the project very successfully existed for almost 10 years.
-What format was this?
-This was the format that was called “Moscow cuisine” - when sushi, pasta, and Caesar were presented ... Everyone could find for himself what he liked. We focused on the bar. In the classic version, 60-70% of the turnover is the kitchen, but ours was the other way around. It was good for us because we made money easier. The project worked around the clock, in the evenings we had music. We invited the most famous and expensive DJs. Breakfast was also very popular with us.
- Breakfast at the bar?
-Yes. It was a city bar. We had a landing of 300 people for a business lunch. It really corresponded to the Moscow rhythm. We had a good breakfast, lunch. Then the evening landing, night - it was all very interesting. But I was married to a foreigner, and he really wanted to live in the Czech Republic. In 2008-2009, we moved and opened the Cosmopolitan Restaurant. I had a very large team from Moscow there, and I myself also cooked. The project was beautiful, I was very proud of it.
-It was in Prague?
Yes, in the very center of the city. But we made serious mistakes, and we could not reach acceptable results. Plus, the business that I stayed in Moscow fell without me. Theft among top managers went there, and I was forced to return. For these reasons, I moved back to Moscow. It was a crisis period, when there were losses here and there, and then I took out a loan and opened a Gayane’s restaurant.
-What, nevertheless, mistakes were made in the Prague project?
- The first mistake was that I relied on my knowledge and experience in the Moscow market. In Moscow, the business center was considered the best location for the institution. Therefore, we opened on Spalena Street, three minutes from Pedestrian and Intourist, from which people could get to us. But they never reached us, because it was not their route. All offices were closed at exactly 6 pm in the entire business center, and the Czechs (they were already what they were now becoming Muscovites) left for their homes. But at 8 o’clock in the morning crowds came to me for breakfast. We had a full landing.
-Yes, in Moscow only now breakfasts are starting to develop.
-Absolutely right. What comes to us now, 10 years ago was already in Prague. We had a full fit for a business lunch, but all my efforts to attract people in the evening were in vain. Already then there were paid parking. People did not come to the center; they rarely went to restaurants. My second mistake was that I did an analysis of Czech restaurants and thought it was terrible. I myself hate beer projects - little investment in design, ugly. I thought I’ll make a cool interior, and I will have a stream of guests. I made a very expensive interior: I bought furniture from Italy, crystal, expensive chandeliers. And the Czechs do not pay any attention to all this at all. On the contrary, when they see this interior, it is impossible to convince them that eating here is better and cheaper than in a terrible dirty eatery. They felt psychologically more comfortable in a democratic environment.
-In the end, closed this project?
- Yes, I closed it two years later and went back to Moscow. But I want to say that at that moment we already had a small plus. I was very proud of myself. All this time, “Cafe on the Stairs” helped me keep this project afloat. I believed that all the same I am gaining amazing experience. Many were upset that the point was closing. I understood that I had done everything in my power. Another year, and this institution could become a fashionable point in Prague, but I did not have that energy, the desire to live, build and work. Moreover, the only successful project that I had at that time began to lose a lot.
-This is a “Cafe on the stairs”?
-Yes.
-And you came back and opened Gayane’s?
-No. I opened it when I was in Prague, and was at a loss. When I returned, another 4 years existed "Cafe on the stairs." These were two different projects that were nearby. In place of the “Cafe on the Stairs” I opened “Panaeley.” And Gayane’s is very stable now.
-And what does the name mean?
-In English, something like "Gayane".
- At the moment you have two projects, do I understand correctly?
-One, because I had to sell the room where Panaeley was located.
-But besides Gayane’s, do you have any other business? Tell us about him.
-I have another project in Yerevan. The first of January I opened a restaurant, it is called Accent by Gayane Breiova. This is a kitchen where original dishes with my accent are presented, using Armenian products, but in a completely new reading. It is a haute cuisine. March 1, I open the project in the space "Depot" on the street. Lesnaya, 20. It will be called "Vegans."
-This will be a cafe for vegans?
-Yes. Among other things, I often speak, go with gala dinners. I have three cookbooks: Gayane Jan's Cuisine, SyRAW Food: The Energy of Live Food, and The Heat of My Kitchen.
- Do you stick to a raw food diet yourself?
-No. I have not eaten meat for a year and a half, but while I eat fish. I do not adhere to anything specific, but I am very interested in vegetarianism and veganism, I really believe in this direction. And I understand that if we slightly reduced the consumption of meat and ate more plant foods, we would do it good.
-I never tried, but it would be interesting.
-If you try my food, I think that you will become almost a vegetarian.
-Thanks, I'll try! You said that the Gayane’s project is mainly for Armenians. Is this the whole composition - both cooks and waiters?
-With regard to the cuisine, it is really only the Armenians. I believe that authentic cooks should work in national cuisine.
Are these the Russian Armenians?
-No, these are guys from Armenia.
-Do you specially transported them?
-Some of them already lived in Moscow. We agreed and transported with someone. For example, kebab moved purely under our project. But basically these are people who literally just moved or lived in Moscow for no more than a year.
-And the food in Gayane’s is your vision of Armenian cuisine?
-No, this is a conservative Armenian cuisine. In Yerevan, my dishes are presented in my Accent by Gayane Breiova restaurant. There I’m just a bully. And in Moscow there is always a small page of my dishes, they change every three months. There is a main menu, absolutely conservative, understandable, exclusively Armenian. This is not Caucasian cuisine, there is no mix.