Running a restaurant is hard work in any part of the world. Russia's fledgling food-service industry has unique challenges, since the concept of a private restaurant is relatively new.
In an effort to play catch-up, 11 Russian restaurateurs have been in town to learn savvy secrets from Utah companies. Hosted by the Salt Lake Rotary Club, the Russians are staying in homes of Utah volunteers and spent the past three weeks touring kitchens, dining rooms, food warehouses, hotels, cafeterias, banks, a wedding-reception center and equipment-supply stores. They've also grilled their hosts about everything from cooking methods to marketing strategies, food safety, restaurant design, finances, legal issues and staff training.
"We've had a lot of changes in Russia. We changed all our laws so finally the people can be entrepreneurs, and our borders are open for travel," Aleksandr Troitskiy explained through interpreter Matvei Finkel. Troitskiy is director of a cafe called "Crunching Crust" in Ussuriisk, near the Chinese border.
"During Soviet times they had a lot of simple cafeterias," he said. "They had very cheap food, but quality was low, and they didn't treat you very well, and of course, they all belonged to the state. In Russia people like to cook at home, and the majority of the restaurants are very expensive. This is why they don't have enough customers. This trip gives us a great chance to watch, to learn and to implement what's possible in Russia."
He said his biggest challenge is creating a spirit of teamwork among the staff.
"In our conditions, it's not very easy to inspire people, and I'm learning what kind of approaches I can use to create the team," Troitskiy said.
Olga Bogdanova, of St. Petersburg, agreed that personnel is her biggest challenge. "We're in a big city, and the cooks and bar men have many choices for work, and we don't have the ability to pay a big salary. The second problem is teaching them what they need to do and keeping them on our team."
During a tour of Hotel Monaco and the restaurant Bambara last Thursday, Bogdanova grilled the managers on how they operate independently of each other. Her restaurant is also in a hotel, which includes breakfast in its room rate and provides a steady flow of customers for the restaurant.
"It's very good for us. So I don't know why they don't do that here," she said of the Hotel Monaco, although hotel manager Rick Tanner told her it's not customary for U.S. hotels to include breakfast.
She also asked how Bambara attracts so many customers outside of hotel guests. Tanner and restaurant manager Art Cazares told of its participation in community events and causes. Also, he added, concierges of other hotels can come in for a free meal, so they are more likely to to refer their guests to Bambara.
Far from being weary two weeks into the tour, the group still appeared eager to soak up more information. When Cazares excused himself to conduct the pre-lunch staff meeting, two members asked to sit it on the meeting.
Video and digital cameras were fired up throughout the tour of the gigantic Nicholas Foods warehouse, where forklifts were needed to access the huge shelves of food products. Several quizzed Ted Gunderson, the company's director of transportation, about ordering and keeping track of inventory.
Konstatin Kotov said he serves sushi in his cafe in Izhevisk near Ekaterinburg, and it takes seven days to get the salmon he orders from Norway. He said he was impressed with the high-tech equipment he'd seen at the University of Utah's food services. "But we wouldn't use it in our restaurant because we cook everything up fresh."
Yelena Gorbunova said Market Street Grill was one of the most impressive restaurants they visited in Salt Lake City. "I liked the design and the size of the restaurant, and the food was OK," she said through interpreter Finkel. "Western food is good, but some of it I don't like — hamburgers, for example."
Her restaurant in Novosibirsk sells two or three times as much borscht (a soup made with beets) as any other kind of soup on the menu. One of her most popular dishes is a thin pancake, or crepe, that can be filled with cheese, meat or other fillings. They range in price from 70 cents to about $5 for a caviar filling. Although prices sound low, Finkel pointed out that U.S. salaries are about 20 times higher than in Russia.
The group also visited Olympic sites in Park City, the Marriott Hotel, the Salt Lake Country Club, Granato's, Bintz Restaurant Equipment, Westminster College, Chartwell Catering, The Point Restaurant at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Mr. Z's Italian Restaurant and Brigham Young University's entrepreneurial facilities. They also learned about franchises and chain restaurants from Training Table, the Slaymaker Group and Sizzler.
This is the eighth Russian delegation to be hosted in Utah since 1997 as part of the Productivity Enhancement Program administered by the nonprofit organization Center for Citizen Initiatives. PEP is a nationwide program that brings Russian entrepreneurs to the United States for business training and cultural exchange.
The program offers a chance to establish business ties and network with each other, said John Zaccheo, owner of Mr. Z's and a Rotary Club member. He estimated that he'd spent more than 60 hours arranging the tour stops, besides accompanying the group eight hours a day for three weeks.
"I feel good about it, because there's only one way you can make change in the world, and that's people to people," he said. "The Cold War separated us for so many years, we have a lot of ground to make up, and this is a quick way to do it."
Zaccheo is planning a trip next year to see what he can learn from Russian restaurants. "They're not as backward as you might think," he said. "Look at their equipment they have here — their iPods and cameras and cell phones. Some of their restaurants could be put in New York City and still be productive."
E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com