Vladimir Perelman is the founder and head of the Perelman People holding, which includes I Like Bar, I Like Grill, I Like Wine, Beer & Brut, Ryba Moya and Zhemchuga restaurants. In addition to the restaurant business, Vladimir Perelman is engaged in design furniture, music, and yoga. It has the unofficial status of the most stylish restaurateur in the capital.
Most Moscow restaurateurs complain about the huge losses they suffered in 2020. Judging by the fact that you have opened a new large-scale project (the two-storey restaurant “Ryba Moya” on Slavyanskaya Square), is Perelman People doing well?
This is where a laudatory ode to a certain part of my company should sound. (Laughs) It's a great success that in all my projects there is a strong partner - Leonid Shamis. He is a lawyer by profession, we have known him for 20 years already. Leonid is involved in all administrative, legal and financial activities. A couple of years ago we organized a management company. And if it were not for the work of his financial department, there would have been many difficulties with obtaining subsidies from the state and with the staff, because some of the restaurants were closed and we needed to support employees.
The second moment that helped us to survive was a large order from one philanthropist. He turned to me at the beginning of April with the question: "Will we be able to provide infrastructural feed in a large volume of doctors near Moscow?" We contacted the headquarters of the governor of the Moscow region and it turned out that the need for this is incredible. We quickly deployed several kitchen factories and implemented this project, shipping 10 thousand dishes a day. Just cosmic volumes, we have never worked like that. To do this, we had to involve specialists who rebuilt four of our restaurants into kitchen factories. We agreed with the sponsor that we pay staff work and other operating expenses for this project, plus, with his consent, we keep a certain percentage for ourselves as a profit. As a result, we left the lockdown with small debts (about 40 million rubles),and now we are gradually repaying them.
And what have you been doing all this time? You didn't need to constantly monitor this activity?
Yes of course. All four months he was engaged in creative work, thinking over ideas related to future restaurants. Well, he also solved some operational tasks. After the quarantine, we began to rebuild the team, because some of the staff simply did not return from their cities, where people left during the lockdown. But new players have appeared. In July, we were offered this room on Slavyanskaya Square, and we managed to negotiate on acceptable terms. Moreover, the contract states that in the event of a new lockdown, we will be free from rent.
© press service
And what is the name of this wonderful patron of the arts?
He doesn't want his name to be mentioned. And I don’t. But I can't help but tell about this story and how we did a good deed, helping people. And at the same time they saved the company. This is a lesson for my whole life, because I take on a lot of responsibility and take all our problems to heart …
Fortunately, at least some of the problems are behind us. Tell me, why did you decide to open “My Fish” here, and not some other project? Want to scale this concept up?
Yes exactly. We have been looking for premises for the restaurant "My Fish" for the last year and a half or two. We like to develop this concept, it allows us to improve the service and product. Most of my friends and guests say that this is a fish restaurant that you want to have in any city in the world. We are working on a project, complicating it a little, making it more secular, more modern. We are going to replicate this concept and go abroad with it.
Will you manage projects yourself or will you be selling franchises?
I think we will work on both scenarios. We will definitely open My Fish in Tel Aviv in the near future with a familiar investor partner. There is a huge demand for this kind of restaurants in Israel. In Tel Aviv, there are mainly old-style fish restaurants, where they bring you a “ship” of meze and mediocre cooked fish. We will open the second restaurant in Istanbul. I know and love this city well. He lived there from 8 to 14 years old. In February, I met with large local investor-restaurateurs who really like the “Fish Moya” concept. We are now looking for a suitable room and will launch the project soon. We will definitely manage these two restaurants ourselves.
1 of 3 © press service © press service © press service
Istanbul has become a place of attraction for many restaurateurs. Arkady Novikov, Anton Pinsky are actively negotiating and looking for suitable premises for their concepts. It is understandable why - there is a luxurious product (the freshest fish and seafood) and a wealthy audience, which lacks high quality restaurants.
Everything is correct. But! Compared to them, I have an indisputable plus - I know the Turkish mentality for sure. (Laughs) After living there for two or three months, I again begin to speak Turkish fluently enough.
Surely your plans are not limited to this?
At the beginning of the new year, we will open a music bistro in the basement (on the minus first level). A completely new format. The musical bistro will consist of four elements - cuisine, wine, bar and music (art in general). The music stage will be set right in front of the open kitchen. The chef will come out and present his dishes from the stage. Moreover, we will invite a new chief every two weeks. The first menu will be joint - from me and our vegan chef Kirill Gubin.
What kind of kitchen will the new project have?
We are inspired by the past. The name of the establishment refers to the memory of my grandfather. He was a brilliant cellist and director of the Mosconcert tour bureau. At one time I played bass at Utesov's together with my other grandfather … You are the first to whom I tell this story. We haven't aired it yet. (Laughs.) Both grandfathers are named Volodya, and I was named after them. The bistro will be called WellWell. Grandfather was a very unusual and charismatic person, a great gentleman, a connoisseur of food, music, art, and people. He had an interesting life. For example, in 1988 he was the first to bring ballet on ice to Australia, and they toured there for 40 days. He traveled all over the world and took our best musicians around it.
So what will you cook? The guest will obviously not be full of music alone.
It will be a comfortable meal - simple, but the very best food I eat myself. I grew up near the Airport metro station near the Leningrad market. And since childhood I bought all the products there. For example, we have been buying meat from Idochka for 25 years. We take dairy products in the village of Chismena, where we have had a summer cottage since 1991. Plus, I have Astrakhan roots, so the new project will definitely have caviar. Several chefs have already agreed to participate in the project, so the guests will be very interested. We will create music on our own - we will unite artists from different groups. The wine and bar will also change to suit the mood of the cuisine and music every week. I promise, we’ll write just like that: “Musical bistro - bar of St. Petersburg prices”. At the start, we declare a low margin. How can we afford it? We did not take into account this basement in the general lease, we do not take into account the payroll,because me, the chefs and employees, and those guys who want pure creativity, will work almost for free. The invited chefs agree to work for a nominal fee. You see, we can afford something unique - there will be absolute freedom of creativity, such a kind of "Hello, we are looking for talents!"
1 of 3 © press service © press service © press service
Yes, if all this creativity is accompanied by humane prices for food and wine, then the project will thunder all over Moscow!
The prices will be as humane as possible. We have excellent wine expertise and many suppliers who love us. In an ordinary restaurant it is difficult to afford to change the wine list often, but here we will just put wines on the shelf. Sold - uploaded a new one. I am literally obsessed with this project. To be honest, I was probably worried for a month, because I could not persuade my partners. We invested in “Ryba Moya” ourselves and did it in order to allocate a share in the project to the brand chef. He has been with me for eight years now, and I wanted to thank him in this way. My older brother is involved in the marketing project and also received a small share. Therefore, we invested ourselves. Moreover, now there is a great risk for investments - it was necessary to guarantee the project with our own funds.
The initial estimate, of course, did not meet? How much over budget? 50-60 percent?
We were lucky. By about 40 percent. (Laughs.) In general, they scraped together money for a bistro with the last bit of strength. The guys say, “What if they shut us down? Okay, Vovka, do it already. Who are we to limit your creativity? " I have the rarest partners, incredible!
What grandiose plans are you making for the next year, in addition to the expansion of the Ryba Moya restaurant?
The plans are huge. We are already designing and building a new project. It will be a meat restaurant with new chefs and a new team. Alexey Penyuk, who made Dima Blinov's projects (Harvest, Tartarbar, etc.), will be engaged in design. This will be his first job in Moscow. We are now looking for a strong bartender. After all, I want to make a big restaurant in which the bar and its atmosphere are important. Now the trend is for small bars, but I want to make a large-scale project. The cocktails will match the concept of the restaurant: fermentation, spices, salt.
© press service
Judging by what I see, the level of cocktail cards in restaurants has dropped significantly in Moscow.
Exactly. Do you know why? Good bartenders don't want to work on network projects. And we are very lucky that we were able to attract such a super professional as Stas Kireev. His worldview has now completely changed. He says: “I have developed competencies so that as many people as possible can drink good cocktails. There are a lot of people in network projects, so the more they get to know my work, the more popular bar art will become. " It is fortunate that such a guy is working in my team and that strong bar managers from other projects come to him now.
In addition, we are creating a cultural center based on the former Most Club and the Brasserie Most. On the ground floor there will be a restaurant, which we are opening with one St. Petersburg restaurateur. And in the cultural center itself there will be a musical concert venue with the best sound in the country. The project will employ curators who know what sovrisk is. In general, I am going into art! (Laughs.)