It’s no surprise when a successful Kyiv restaurant expands throughout the country. But when a regional eatery enters the sharp-toothed Kyiv restaurant scene and thrives, it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Hundreds of cafes, bars, street food spots and high-end eateries open every year in the capital, while dozens shut down, often because of fierce competition.
In 2019, at least seven new Kyiv restaurants came from other cities ranging from a small coffee shop from Cherkasy to a huge food market from Odesa. Many have conquered the capital with bold ideas and hometown color while staying open to experimentation.
“All the regional businesses have an idea to open in Kyiv. It’s natural because Kyiv is perceived as a place that offers more money and more opportunities,” Alex Cooper, a restaurateur from Odesa who co-owns two restaurants in the capital, told the Kyiv Post.
Star concepts
Many of the regional restaurants entering the Kyiv market come from Ukraine’s main tourist destinations, Lviv and Odesa, where the development of dining business is pushed by high demand.
The latest addition to the restaurant scene in Kyiv is Molodist (Youth), a 24-hour eatery offering a taste of 1990s-2000s nostalgia with a period menu, design and music.
Its co-owner, Cooper, 31, is an accomplished restaurateur with a number of eateries in Odesa. There, Cooper opened the first version of Molodist in 2016.
He says that today, Molodist in Odesa serves about 400,000 customers a year, an impressive number for a relatively small establishment.
“I’d like to think that it became one of the emblematic and must-visit places,” Cooper said.
For the Kyiv version of Molodist, Cooper teamed up with another restaurateur, Mikhail Beylin, the owner of the La Famiglia group of eateries. Beylin was an advisor to Borys Lozhkin, a chief of staff to former President Petro Poroshenko. Beylin is now suspected of misappropriating funds through the state rail monopoly Ukrzaliznytsia. The Kyiv Post was unable to reach Beylin for comment.
People enjoy food and drinks at the new Molodist restaurant on Nov. 6, 2019, in Kyiv. Molodist originates from Odesa and offers a taste of the 1990s-2000s nostalgia with its design, menu and music. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Kyiv’s Molodist opened its doors on Oct. 31 and has become an instant hit. The restaurant maintains its core nostalgia that takes visitors back to the turn of the 21st century. However it is more universal than the original Molodist, which focuses on post-Soviet Ukraine. The space is decorated with small TVs, a pool table and old-fashioned furniture.
“We wanted to open a Berlin bar about the 90s-00s, the youth of people of my age,” Cooper said.
Cooper didn’t copy the original restaurant’s menu either. He says that some of the dishes they serve in Odesa wouldn’t be familiar to a Kyiv audience.
“For Odesa residents, the memory of how their mom fried Black Sea sprat for them in the morning is a normal childhood memory and for a Kyiv residents it is very strange,” Cooper said.
Molodist offers a number of homey dishes that evoke memories for every Ukrainian, from herring with potatoes to the legendary Olivier salad and Chebureki, a deep-fried turnover filled with cheese instead of the traditional minced meat.
Cooper and Beylin co-own another sensational venue in the capital, Kyiv Food Market, which houses over 20 restaurants and bars in a huge two-story building. It originated from another of Cooper’s popular projects in Odesa called City Food Market.
Cooper says since opening on Sept. 25, over 150,000 customers have dined at Kyiv Food Market. It often had endless lines outside that have led the establishment to limit entrance for short periods of time.
The main idea behind the project was to open a market offering foods for any taste, including pizza, pasta, burgers, healthy food, Ukrainian and Thai cuisine, so that groups with different preferences can enjoy a meal together. In addition, Kyiv Food Market’s open space contributes to a rare, breezy atmosphere that spurs strangers to make acquaintances, communicate and share food and drinks.
Visitors drink cherry liquor outside the Drunk Cherry bar near Lva Tolstoho Square metro station in Kyiv on April 11, 2018. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Cooper says that opening both locations didn’t present many challenges, and they don’t yet see much difference between the restaurant scenes in Kyiv and Odesa. The reason, he says, is that the recipe for success is universal.
“We understand that we need to give good service, delicious food and interesting projects,” Cooper said.
Local color
Another big supplier of regional restaurants to thecapital is Lviv, the western city of 720,000 people located nearly 540 kilometers from Kyiv. There are now 18 eateries in Kyiv that originated from Lviv player “!Fest Holding of Emotions” company.
Founded by three entrepreneurs, Andriy Khudo, Yurko Nazaruk and Dmytro Gerasimov, Fest has 12 years of experience. It owns some of the most popular Lviv restaurants including Kryivka, themed as an underground shelter of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. It attracts roughly one million customers each year.
They are also the creators of Lviv Handmade Chocolate, a long-time hit in their hometown before they opened it in Kyiv in 2010. Over the years, it has grown into a big chain with locations in 25 Ukrainian cities and one abroad.
In 2017, Fest brought another iconic Lviv eatery to Kyiv. Drunk Cherry bar serves cherry liquor and appetizers to go with it, and the area around the bar is often crowded. Since 2017, four Drunk Cherries have popped up around Kyiv.
Unlike Cooper, whose company operates all the projects in Kyiv, Fest multiplies its eateries as franchises, investing only in some of them.Khudo says the franchisees mustmaintain the original atmosphere and Lviv’s local color, which many Ukrainians love and miss.
“Kyivans always warmly welcome our formats,” Khudo said.
The only time Fest failed to reproduce their atmosphere was when they opened the craft beer pub Pravda. A noisy four-story building with live music played by a mini-orchestra in Lviv, Pravda in Kyiv was much smaller, with no live music.
“If you were in Lviv’s (Pravda) and saw all that show and drive, in Kyiv, you couldn’t really find it,” Khudo said.
Fest decided to blend Pravda with Reberna, the latest restaurant they opened in Kyiv. Rebernia is yet another renowned restaurant in Lviv that welcomes tourists and offers a variety of meats with a ribs specialty.
In Kyiv, Rebernia is located on historic Andriivskyi Descent, where “Kyiv life boils,” Khudo says. “Just come over at night and the length of the line will show the success of the restaurant.”
