Hide, the restaurant opened by Evgeny Chichvarkin at 85 Piccadilly in London, has made the top 100 UK restaurants in the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards (NRA) 2019, taking 32nd place. The restaurant's wine list was recognized as the best in the country. The ranking is compiled from votes by more than 200 British chefs, restaurateurs and critics: the country is divided into 11 regions, and in each jury members choose seven establishments they liked best over the past year. The top three included Moor Hall in Lancashire, Brat in the capital and the fish restaurant Cornerstone in east London.
History of the partnership
Euroset was founded by Evgeny Chichvarkin and Timur Artemyev in Moscow in April 1997. In 2008, on the eve of a sale deal, the K department of the Interior Ministry carried out a corporate raid on Euroset, the businessman recounted. A criminal case was opened against company employees on suspicion of kidnapping former courier Andrei Vlaskin in 2003, who had been caught stealing phones. In 2011 all the Euroset employees accused of kidnapping were acquitted, and the criminal case against Chichvarkin was closed. On the eve of his departure from Moscow to London in 2009, Chichvarkin and his partner Timur Artemyev sold the largest retail chain for mobile phones and accessories to Alexander Mamut's investment group AN&N. Shortly afterwards, Mamut resold 49.9% of Euroset to VimpelCom for $226 million, and in 2012 and 2014 MegaFon bought up the remaining stake in parts.
The restaurant and investments
Having invested "more than £10 million" in the project, Chichvarkin opened the three-storey Hide in 2018 in London's historic and business centre, directly across the road from Green Park. For the chef's position the businessman brought in one of London's most sought-after cooks, Ollie Dabbous, whom he persuaded to close two successful restaurants in order to immerse himself fully in the new project. The businessman found the premises for the restaurant back in November 2013; 4.5 years went into re-planning, renovation and finishing. "The bronze we've used to cover the floor took six months to produce," the businessman said in an interview with Russkiye Normy! (Russian Norms!). Investment in the opening could amount to £20 million, The Evening Standard wrote. Chichvarkin himself did not give an exact figure but spoke of investments of "more than £10 million." Chichvarkin's co-investor was his former Euroset partner and co-owner of Hedonism Wines, Timur Artemyev.
The restaurant has three floors, each with its own concept: in the basement space Below there is a wine cellar, a cocktail bar and three rooms for private dinners; on the second floor is the Ground area with a regular menu; on the third is the Above area with fine dining, that is, a signature tasting menu of 11 dishes and wine that will cost £95 per person. On average a customer "can manage" without wine for £60 ($85), Chichvarkin said. The restaurant is not yet profitable. Hide will become profitable only in five years, Bloomberg believes. The restaurant received a Michelin star less than six months after opening — in October 2018. One star in the Michelin Red Guide means that a restaurant has high-level cuisine and is itself worth a visit.
The wine business
Since 2012 Chichvarkin has owned the wine boutique Hedonism Wines. This year the restaurant won the competition for the best wine list of the year, which is understandable given the partnership with Hedonism Wines. According to the shop's website, Hedonism Wines has almost 7,000 wine lines. "Clients get a kick out of our selection. Imagine a little girl who has ten dolls, in a shop where there are two thousand. Will she get lost there? She might be taken aback for a second, but then she'll start grabbing one after another and examining them, getting pleasure, immersing herself in this beautiful world of choice," the businessman said in an interview with Inc. The most expensive bottle of wine at the time of opening cost a little more than £100,000; the cheapest was £13. In 2017 Hedonism Wines' revenue grew by 37% to £20.7 million, and net profit almost fivefold to £1.6 million. That success was helped by growth in the client base, as the project earned a reputation in customers' eyes, and by the weakening of the British pound because of Brexit, Chichvarkin told Vedomosti.
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