Russian pancakes in Manhattan: as the owner of the well-known network "Teremok" opened a business in the US

Mikhail Goncharov started his business at the end of 90. Photo by Denis Malinin

In the very center of New York, at the intersection of 7 Avenue and 30 Street (358 7th Ave.), the first restaurant of the famous Russian chain opened its doors "Teremok". Now residents and guests of the city can try the most authentic Russian pancakes. The menu also has cereals, soups, salads, cheesecakes and even traditional kvass.

Co-owner and founder of the pancake business is Mikhail Goncharov. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Moscow State University graduate was engaged in selling equipment, and in 1998 he created his own business called Teremok.

Why did Teremok decide to enter the American market, how did US residents react to Russian pancakes, and how much will lunch at the restaurant cost? The director of the company, Mikhail Goncharov, told ForumDaily about this and much more.

Briefly about “Teremka”

Today Teremok has 300 restaurants in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Surgut and Tyumen. The chain can be classified as fast casual, that is, Teremok prepares food immediately after ordering, without using frozen foods. By CNN versions, the chain was ranked among the top eight fast food companies in the world outside the United States. In Russia, Teremok serves more than 30 million customers a year.

Michael, why did you decide to open a restaurant in New York?

In Europe, we seriously considered Germany. But we have a language barrier with Germany. With America, as a country where new fast food concepts and new formats are created, such as fast-casual, everything was wonderful. That is, we speak English properly, and the market itself is ready to accept our concept.

After all, in Europe there are still small family restaurants with private owners, but in America chains are actively developing, and as soon as a worthwhile concept appears, it begins to develop powerfully. Like, for example, Five Guys or Chipotle.

In Russia, Teremok can be found in the capital and four other cities. You could continue to open restaurants in your homeland, but you chose America. For what? Given today's dollar exchange rate, did the project cost you a lot?

Investments amounted to about a million dollars. Our buyer knows and understands what he pays a lot of money for. Cities with small populations are simply not ready to accept our concept, this is normal. A small difference in price and people won't pay. They say, why would I pay for pancakes or borscht if I can’t cook borscht at home? Or they even think it’s better to eat at McDonald’s.

The level of consumption is different from Moscow. Our concept so far can only be launched in large cities. The demand in the same Krasnodar, for example, is lower than we expected. Therefore, it makes no sense to invest in other cities. This is a clean economy, we are engaged in business. Here the calculation is only economic.

Any order at Teremka is made in 5 minutes. Photo by Denis Malinin

Not a single month goes by without letters to us from different countries - from Venezuela to Japan.

People really want to open Teremok in their country: either help, invest, or get a franchise. One businessman who sells franchises wrote me a letter and said that he wanted to take a photo with me - with a man who makes 4 tons of dough every night. This was a long time ago, now we make 12 tons of dough every day.

For the opening of the restaurant in New York you were preparing 3 of the year. What was done during this time?

The first year is studying the market, studying concepts and formats. The second year is preparing our kitchen: first of all, I wanted us to create a product that we have in Russia - both in taste and in quality.

We rented a small kitchen, bought a lot of products and worked magic on them. Well, just like we did in Russia - that is, 10 types of flour, 5 types of milk - and all this is mixed in different proportions, looking for the composition that will give the ideal product. And the last year has been a search for premises and renovations. That is, for the first six months we created a commissary kitchen - our production workshop, which supplies all restaurants. And for the last six months we have been working on our restaurant: looking for premises, signing a lease agreement and making repairs.

Did you say that you specially equipped the production hall?

Yes, there we make fresh dough every night. Before baking, it should stand for a few hours. We also bake boiled pork, add salmon and make other wonderful fillings.

And if business goes well, then, of course, in the future we can connect other large American cities. There is a certain law of the genre. With the Teremka concept, there is no need to go to the highways or small towns. And where there is active business life and offices, we work well.

Pancakes at Teremka are baked using a special technology. Photo by Denis Malinin

You opened a little over a month ago. Can you make any first conclusions?

The first month gave, first of all, an understanding that serious adjustments to the concept would not be required. The sales share of the dishes was surprisingly close to the Russian ones. This is just fantastic. Moreover, buckwheat porridge is sold on 20% better than in Moscow. This is the main joy. But there is a small adaptation.

We launched, for example, double portions of soups. In Russia, we have small portions of soups, but here we realized that there are quite a few people who can just take a large portion of soup for lunch. And made a large capacity and a double portion at an affordable price. Now they decided to fry bacon according to American tradition, so that it turned out to be crispy. Of course, we must grope, understand what is close and what is interesting. And in this direction to move.

What did Americans love? And how much will lunch at Teremka cost?

Our salmon turned out great. We make it ourselves from carcasses - in a proprietary salting process. And it is very important that we have no storage. That is, there is no storage logistics, which supermarkets need to supply distant stores, warehouses, etc. with this salmon. We have a new portion every day. The result is the freshest product. Baked pork too. It is added to a pancake called Pork stuffed.

We have a stable menu, but if we compare with McDonalds, we are crazy innovators.

For example, our complex 5 pancakes did not exist years ago, and now they are in the top sales. In America, we want to come to us regularly. We designed an average check for $ 11-12. It turned out that way. This is also an excellent calculation.

We selected the names taking into account the local market. Because it makes no sense to translate or call the pancake “Ilya Muromets”. This is absurd. Some names - for example, "Tatiana's Caesar" - are such a free interpretation of the Caesar salad recipe. It contains several unusual ingredients. In order to avoid any questions about where our classic “Caesar” is, we called it “Tatyanin” (because our chef is my mother Tatyana Vasilyevna).

I read on the Internet that all recipes are being developed by your mom. How did that happen?

I made my first recipes myself in the office, together with an assistant, in 1998. We removed the computer from the table, installed a stove, and had a mixer. Everyone interfered - sometimes the pancake wouldn’t turn over, sometimes it tore, sometimes we ended up with white pancakes. We messed around for a week, and something happened. My mother got involved in formulating after six months or a year. And at first we didn’t make a single filling. Everything was ready-made and primitive. Mom took up taste, but she didn’t just take care of it, she really cooks very, very tasty.

I am a mathematician, I crunch numbers, and she also easily spins tastes in her head. She sometimes tells me a recipe - look, look what I came up with. I came up with it in my head, but for me it’s just a bunch of words. And I had no doubt that no one would create a signature cuisine better than her. Mom is a musician and a teacher with a pedagogical education. We train people at Teremka, and this teaching method is also her development.

She now heads the quality department. The development of new dishes is based on marketing - we monitor the market, restaurants, magazines, newspapers - everything that is relevant. For example, we tell her that she needs to make a fish pancake with unusual fish. And sometimes in 2 days she gives birth to a unique recipe. With the workshop, she processes serial products, and then calls me and my deputy Andrei Narkevich, and we taste it.

According to Mikhail Goncharov, now the pancake business in the USA is developing according to plan. Photo by Denis Malinin

I noticed that in the American menu there is not a single word in Russian. Did you do it on purpose?

For example, let's take a Japanese restaurant. You walk in and see some hieroglyphs - well, on the one hand, you understand that these are Japanese hieroglyphs, but on the other hand, you don’t understand what is written at all.

For example, a constructivist poster in Teremka. It was made for us by a very famous designer, he lives in Paris and is Russian by origin. Here (Mikhail points to the wall in the restaurant - editor's note) - here is St. Basil's Cathedral, the satellite is drawn. This is something that can be hinted at. But just Russian letters that no one will understand... Well, you never know what we’ll write there. Maybe we’ll write some curse words...

Who comes to Teremok? More Russian visitors?

We always thought that there would be few of us here. After all, this is Manhattan, not Brighton. And here you won’t find shops with Russian inscriptions and menus. But it turned out so surprisingly that there are many Russian offices and employees in Manhattan, and maybe 30-40% of our visitors are Russian-speaking.

There are tourists. Yesterday the family was from Moscow - they walked, saw, and were happy. We came in and bought $50 worth of food and sat down to eat with pleasure. The most important thing is that we work in such a publicly accessible genre. We are closer to the segment that in America is professionally called fast-casual - a restaurant with food prepared to order.

Someone perceives us as fast food and wonders why a visitor should wait and why it is so expensive. But for this we made an open kitchen, so that you immediately see that they bake right now and just for you.

You decided that the Russian pancakes will make the Americans?

We made the decision that we had to be local everywhere. We have an international concept. As an example, here is a wonderful letter from the vice president of a large Indian company. He wrote that every time he flies from Moscow to India, he takes 25-30 pancakes with him and distributes them at home to all his family and friends. He told us: come to India - open up, it will be a resounding success.

Employees of Teremka in New York. Photo by Denis Malinin

We also cannot be too Russian in America. If we opened here, it means our staff and management are local. What is important here is that it is the concept that works, not the people. It doesn't just sound like it: we make pancakes. In the eyes of the average person, what is a business and a restaurant? This is - we bought flour, milk, made dough, baked pancakes. But each of these processes requires many days and fine tuning. Training system, development of standards and training according to standards. This is all the basis of Teremok as a business, and not an idea at all - we want to sell pancakes.

One of the foundations of management is, oddly enough, an idea from the American school of Dr. Edwards Deming. This is the man who created the Japanese quality system. We visited Japan twice and visited factories. Every year we try to implement these ideas of quality and management. This is a long process, it is working with people. They need to be trained, and people always take a long time to train.

In your opinion, where is the best service today?

Over the past 10 years, I have observed the degradation of service all over the world. In words there is service, but in reality “there are many of you, but I am one or alone” - now this can easily be heard in cafes in Paris.

We are watching the service in Russia and Europe, and perhaps it will be funny for American citizens to hear, but today in Russia there is one of the best services in the world. Russia is hungry for good service. On this wave, people are incredibly demanding, and what they demand from a service in Russia is unattainable in Europe.

Launching a new project outside of your home country is a certain risk. What were you most afraid of?

I wasn't afraid. Today, having a good, serious brand provides powerful sales. When a new company appears, completely unknown on the market, it can offer a unique product at a very good price, but no one will come to it and buy the product. Why do you think Shake Shack opened only 2 locations in 2 years of operation? For this reason.

When we opened in St. Petersburg, there was “Shaurma” nearby, and their revenue was 15 rubles a day. And “Teremok” then traded for 000 rubles a day. Moreover, in “Shaurma” everything was in unsanitary conditions, but there was a queue. And only in the third year we caught up with them. This is not fear, but simply an understanding that there is a long way to go for people to recognize and believe in the company, in the brand.

Employees of offices located near the restaurant often come to Teremok for lunch. Photo by Denis Malinin

We also have a note of patriotism. Russia today is a completely different country. World class and quality businesses are born in Russia. This can be seen in the same restaurant chains, supermarkets, agribusiness holdings. Now in Moscow, I eat rib-eye steaks and fillets of exceptional marbling and Russian-made. This is a new business.

And to our American Teremok, for example, Russians bring their American colleagues and almost force them to eat. I completely understand this - in New York you can always try ethnic food. When a local restaurant appears that looks pretty decent and serves good quality food, people are pleased not only to eat themselves, but also to invite their friends.

On the Internet, I read some reviews from ill-wishers who write that there is no point in opening a Russian restaurant in the center of New York - they say, business will not work. What do you think about it?

Agree that the restaurants on Brighton Beach, from the point of view of modern Russian cuisine, are more than modest. In Moscow now Russian restaurants are much more interesting and of higher quality. Should old-school restaurants open in Manhattan? I'm not sure. And if the concept is new and modern, then you should definitely open it.

We built Teremok from the first day as a modern brand. The whole world accepted the Japanese quality system, and we accepted it. The same goes for the design, style, baking and technology we use. Half of our dishes are creative and not quite Russian dishes. For example, the Tatiana Caesar pancake is a bestseller. But it is not in any Russian cookbook. This is modern Russian cuisine.

The first Teremok is already in the USA. What are your plans for the future?

“Teremok” is a certain organism that includes motivated people; it is a set of knowledge, standards and opinions that are in written form. We have 300 restaurants. By Russian standards, this is a lot. After American brands in Russia, we are now in third place.

In Moscow we are developing gradually, we always say “how” and not “what numbers” we need to achieve. How many restaurants? This is fortune telling and prediction like astrology. The main thing for us is development. We now have one restaurant, we already have a lease agreement for the second one, and we have signed an agreement with the American Dream center. When we see that we are firmly on our feet and that we do not need to make global changes, we will develop further.

The professionals who accompany us - marketers, realtors - and those buyers who were with us in the first weeks rate our product very highly and believe in us. So we will work hard. And development will come. Everything has its time.

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