Four years of robust economic growth has created an ever-growing Ukrainian middle class and ever more nouveaux riches, and it is these groups that today account for the bulk of customers in the city's expanding and diverse restaurant and bar scenes.
h has created an ever-growing Ukrainian middle class and ever more nouveaux riches, and it is these groups that now account for the bulk of customers in the city’s expanding and diverse restaurant and bar scenes.
To the Eric’s Family group of restaurants, bars and discos, increasing demand for western-styled restaurants and bars has also meant competition.
German native Eric Aigner and his Soviet-born Korean partner Viola Kim established some of the capital’s first quality eating and drinking venues ten years ago, soon after they arrived in the city. Their various restaurants, bars and nightclubs quickly became hits among expatriates, and the envy of locals.
Backed by Ukrainian partners, the duo currently manages six popular venues in Kyiv: nightclub/restaurant 111, jazz bar 44, Viola’s restaurant/bar, Eric’s Bierstube and the Cave restaurant.
“It used to be that foreigners accounted for a majority of our customers,” says co-manager Kim, better known by her first name Viola. “But today, more than half our guests are Ukrainians,” she adds. “There is a growing middle class developing within the local Ukrainian population. They are getting on their feet.”
As demand increases, so does competition, which is very good for the market, she says.
“Three years ago, we felt like monopolists on the market… In the last several years, the number of middle- to high-class segment restaurants has likely quadrupled to about 180,” she continues. Exact figures are hard to come by, as nobody gathers information on the subject, she explains.
“[New venues] will find their place on the market as demand increases,” she says.
And speaking of new venues, Aigner and Kim have some plans of their own.
“We plan to open two new venues in the near future. One will be a nightclub called 112, which will be in the basement of Mandarin Plaza. We also hope to open a combination hotel/restaurant next year at the former Zagreb, just outside town,” she added.
Viola said the new competition on the city’s restaurant, bar and disco markets has raised standards to new levels.
Unlike the upbeat Viola, Vitaly Shadchnev, manager of the Mirovaya Karta chain of restaurants, has a more pessimistic view of the market.
“The market is very saturated. There are a lot of restaurants for people with a lot of money, but not many restaurants targeting the majority of the population. Some restaurants are empty and some are full.”
“I can say that our restaurants are full enough. As far as new openings go, they are not a priority, although we plan on opening two eateries this autumn. They will be in big Ukrainian cities with populations of over one million,” Shadchnev said.
The players
The Kozyrnaya Carta group manages about 40 restaurants, including Miami Blues, Non-Stop, Nobu, FreeDom, Da Vinci Fish Club, Karavan, Pantagruel and Picasso. The group also has two restaurants in Odessa, several in other Ukrainian cities, and three in New York.
The Kozyrnaya Carta chain formed in 2001, when the restaurants of the group united to offer a discount program that would be honored in all of the group’s member restaurants.
Rival organization Mirovaya Karta followed, introducing its 10 percent discount program in May 2003. Mirovaya Karta owns restaurants including Tequila House, Golden Gate, Mimino, Sam’s Steak House, Lipsky Osobnyak, and Opium Dance Club. The group also includes Asahi, L`amour, Marakesh and Razgulyayevo. Although the discount program is fairly new, many of the restaurants in the group have been operating for years.
Both discount card programs have proved highly successful.
“The clientele of Mirovaya Karta restaurants grew considerably after we introduced the discount program,” said Mirovaya Karta’s Shadchnev. “Now we have about 10,000 steady clients. The majority of them are at least 35 years old and deliberate in their choice of restaurants… A third of our clients are foreigners.”
