It's freezing and snowing outside. TSUM flirts with passers-by with colorful lights. A few steps away is the noise of Kuznetsky Most. The new Simple Wine & Bar from wine trading company Simple greets guests with a glass-and-wood checkered facade, a glowing sign and a porch with treacherous steps. It’s noisy, crowded, hot inside, and after a few minutes it’s also stuffy. There is cement all around, rough red brick, shelves with wine, a window overlooking the bustling kitchen and the inscription on the wall “I am simple, but not too much.” Light structures hang from the ceiling, casting a dim light on the many tables glued together, distorting the view of the food and wine. Waiters are bustling around at the entrance. They do not immediately pay attention to newly arrived visitors, and when they do, they immediately send them to the basement, where the wardrobe, toilet and wine boutique are located. The boutique is beautiful, light, wooden, stocked with a good selection of wines. There are a lot of workers there, they try something, pour it, rearrange it, communicate with customers, and only the cloakroom attendant gloomily stands aside and, without any words, accepts and issues outerwear.
The menu at Simple Wine & Bar is modest in size, but not in ambition. The names try to flirt with guests, use humor, and strive to charm with unusualness. Sometimes it works, but more often it doesn't. The accent tries to be original, but does not swim too far into the waters of innovation, preferring to swim next to familiar Europe.
The food also tries to flaunt its uniqueness and originality, but in reality the kitchen produces dishes saturated with confusion and imbalance.
Bread basket, 0 ₽
Impressive olives or olives 50 g., 150 ₽
Another look at carpaccio - with puffed cheese and pickled beets, 500 ₽
Warm salad with beef tenderloin and eggplant, 650 ₽
Pho, but not Bo, 550 ₽
Beef tenderloin with tender potatoes, 1200 ₽
Once upon a time in risotto - duck, pumpkin and currants, 450 ₽
, 300 ₽
Wine Angel's Share "Two Hands", Shiraz 2016 (Australia), 3237 ₽
The “bread basket” appeared in the form of several pieces of aged bread, which had taken a course towards dryness long before my appearance.
The dish with the unusual name “Another take on carpaccio with puffed cheese and pickled beets” looked very impressive and appetizing, but the taste was disappointing. Warm thin slices of raw beef were accompanied by beets, pears, salad mix and splashes of vigorous blue cheese, which immediately took all the initiative into its own hands. Apart from it, there was nothing else in the dish, so the establishment wasted its money on beef; without it, everything would have been the same.
“Fo, but not Bo” was not only not Bo, but also not Fo. Instead of the declared “Vietnamese” soup, the bowl contained a brownish broth with the taste of “store-bought” Asian powder, in which floated elastic white tasteless fish balls, too soft noodles and a lot of fresh herbs. Taste strange, broken, repulsive.
“Warm Salad with Beef Tenderloin and Eggplant” presented to my attention an indistinct combination of cool baked eggplant and warm pieces of meat that had lost all juiciness. It was possible to eat it, but without much joy and solely to satisfy hunger.
“Beef tenderloin with tender potatoes” was a piece of meat cut in half, which the girl waiter flatly refused to call “fillet”. The “not fillet” lay between three circles of mousse, which were seasoned with fried mushrooms and herbs. The meat was medium rare, medium quality, medium juicy and medium tender. The mousse turned out to be moderately airy, sweetish and very well complemented not the meat at all, but the tasty, bright mushrooms. Not a masterpiece, but better than other creations from Simple Wine & Bar.
I was able to observe part of the cooking process “Once upon a time in risotto duck, pumpkin and currants” with my own eyes. A young man appeared at the window with a frying pan in which risotto was being cooked. At first, he held the pan suspended, stirred and tasted its contents. Then he placed her under the heat lamp and left. About three minutes later the young man returned, picked up the frying pan, mixed everything again and put it on the next table. The risotto sat there for another four minutes, after which it migrated back under the lamp, and then acquired additional ingredients and went to me. The result of this whole process is pumpkin rice porridge with dots of currant jam. Like porridge edible, like risotto sad.
Dessert had to take the rap for the kitchen's previous mistakes. The “blood orange fondant and sorbet” turned out well. The chocolate was palpable, the filling spread across the plate, the slight tartness balanced well with the sweetness of the dough, so no complaints.
But I had complaints about the service. The waiters watched the tables selectively, approaching some and not noticing others. They changed cutlery and dirty plates solely upon request; they didn’t even think about adding wine or water. Since there was no wine list in the restaurant, the waiters themselves talked about the wine positions, but they did it extremely ineffectively, and very quickly the conversation boiled down to the question: “What exactly do you want?” The problem with this approach was that in the absence of a clear list of available positions, the selection process turned into a kind of quiz competition, which I immediately wanted to abandon. Having somehow sorted out the order, I took a bottle of wine at store price with a 30 percent markup and began to wait. Soon a sommelier girl appeared at the table with an already open bottle and began pouring the contents into glasses. It’s worth noting here that I ordered the bottle and not the glass position. Moreover, no one brought the wine to me or showed it to me beforehand. Naturally, I immediately had an obvious question: “Dear, why is the bottle open?” The answer was brilliant in its confidence and simplicity and sounded something like this:
- Our tables are very close, so we consulted and decided that we would open all the bottles at our stand and try them there.
- How can I show the bottle?
- For what?
- What if you made a mistake, took the wrong wine or mixed up the year...
- Our clients trust us.
- So you’ve only been working for a couple of months!
- Well, we are all professionals, and everyone knows us well. Before this I worked at Grand Cru on Bronnaya.
- Girl, I’m seeing you for the first time in my life and I don’t know where you worked and what you did before you opened this bottle somewhere on your counter.
- If you don’t like it, I’ll be happy to take it for myself and bring you another one.
"I wonder at whose expense?" I asked, but to myself.
The result is this:
I am sure that, despite any criticism and despite any outrage and negative comments, Simple Wine & Bar will become popular, especially among young people and lovers of inexpensive glass items, and all because the price tag for wine there is one and a half times lower, than in other wine establishments. As for the food and service, after three glasses of red wine, such little things no longer bother anyone, including the staff.
In the fall, the Simple company will open eight new SimpleWine wine stores, five of them will appear in Moscow, two in St. Petersburg and one in Rostov-on-Don. The company is observing a growing interest among Russians in wine, including Russian wine.
The largest importer and distributor of wine in Russia, the company is expanding the network of its wine stores in St. Petersburg. To the already operating points on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, 55, and the Fontanka River embankment, 52, this fall two more SimpleWine wine bars will be added in the Nevsky Center shopping center and on Nevsky Prospekt, 137, the company told DP. There are plans to further increase the presence of the SimpleWine network in St. Petersburg, Simple emphasizes.
In St. Petersburg, SimpleWine has a high potential for growth, although competition in our segment is high, and there are many local network players in the market, a large number of wine bars and boutiques, says Elena Sharubina, general director of the SimpleWine wine store chain.
Wine goes to the regions
Simple intends to launch new wineries not only in St. Petersburg. This fall, the company has planned new openings in the capital; five more wine stores will appear in Moscow, and one point will also begin operating in Rostov-on-Don. Today, the SimpleWine network consists of 21 wine stores, most of these stores operate in the capital.
According to General Director Maxim Chernigovsky, opening each outlet may require at least 6 million rubles. SimpleWine occupies premises of approximately 100 m2. The range of wine stores includes 1.1 thousand items - wine, strong alcoholic drinks and accessories.
The Simple group of companies is a leading player in the Russian wine market with a wide distribution network throughout Russia. The company was founded in 1994 by Maxim Kashirin and Anatoly Korneev. The lion's share of the company's portfolio is taken by wine supplies from Italy. In addition to the distribution business, Simple is involved in tourism - the travel agency Simple Travel specializes in gastronomic travel to all wine regions of the world. The company also owns the Enotria wine school and the Grand Cru wine bar. The distributor has been developing the SimpleWine wine library chain since 2003. At the end of 2016, the revenue of the group's main company, Simple Company LLC, increased by 36%, to 9.6 billion rubles.
“Based on our sales in Moscow and St. Petersburg, we see that the consumption of high-quality alcohol is growing. New buyers come to us who are interested in wine and want to understand it. They ask about production technologies, grape varieties, and the specifics of the regions,” shares Elena Sharubina. According to Simple’s observations, demand for wines in the 800-1500 ruble segment is increasing among Russians, and sales of Russian and New World wines are also steadily growing.
Sellers - suppliers
Developing in St. Petersburg, Simple will face the highest competition, Maxim Chernigovsky is convinced. “There are a lot of specialized stores in the city, as well as branded retail of alcohol producers,” the expert argues, “and serious plans for the development of a network in St. Petersburg should also be taken into account.
Most of the alcohol markets in St. Petersburg are stores opened by manufacturers or suppliers of alcoholic products. The boom in distributors opening their own retail stores in St. Petersburg occurred in 2015; during the crisis, 50 alcohol markets were opened in the city annually. Then the trading company "Trial" began opening stores
Beautiful office - there is voluntary health insurance, salary in the market. The manager had a pleasant impression, HR a neutral impression. In general, there was nothing unusual, they answered quickly, until they decided to refuse, apparently:
I attended 2 interviews and also took a test. I didn't receive any feedback. The company is actively working on its image and positions itself as a Western one, then they could respond to all candidates, I don’t think it’s so difficult to write “thank you, you weren’t suitable.”
08.11.18 09:29 MoscowAlexei,
Good afternoon. I had an interview at the Simple company in Odintsovo. Please tell me who has already arranged everything as promised. White salary official salary. Or deception. Is it worth leaving your military job? Or I'll exchange the awl for soap
06.10.18 13:25 MoscowAnton Hawkeye,
I found several vacancies for this company: Storekeeper, warehouse employee, merchandiser. To Odintsovo district. The website shows a salary of 55 thousand rubles. Convenient location. I live near a metro station with little service, from where corporate transport goes to work. Shift work schedule, unknown, but I would like 3/3. Well, if not a dream job, I’m happy with everything. So I rolled my lip.
Please respond to employees who already work there or have worked there. Don’t be lazy and answer whether everything listed nearby in the positive review corresponds. What is the official salary there (stated 55 tr), do they give money in envelopes and how much do they give. What is the work schedule, otherwise the website states that it is shiftable, but the shifts are not indicated. How many hours in a shift? Are we being delayed at work or are we working from...
08.08.18 15:17 MoscowMichael,
Impressions from the interview are neutral.
Question for those who work at the warehouse in Odintsovo. I won’t pry out commercial secrets, I’ll ask this: does it make sense to switch to you from a salary of 40-45 thousand (in hand)? Will I gain, will I lose, will I keep my own? And how are things really (and not according to managers) with the schedule?
29.05.18 09:49Krasnodar cityChristina,
I tried to get into Simple here in Krasnodar, because they are conveniently located near my home and the social package is good. Unfortunately, there are not many “white” companies in the regions. I just didn’t have enough points according to the test results, so they gave preference to another candidate, but they said that perhaps another bid would be open. Impressions from the team were positive, competent leaders, especially...
I didn’t notice it during interviews.
06.05.18 13:23 MoscowAnonymous,
27.02.18 12:20MoscowAnna,
I went to study abroad, I will be glad to return to the company upon my return. A very strong management team, a completely white salary, often above the market, a beautiful office with a good kitchen, excellent social services. plastic bag. Nobody gets caught up in being five minutes late. The company is growing, developing, opening branches and wineries.
— Serious growth. How did it affect sales?
- By falling.
- How deep?
- Hard to say. We ended January in a strong minus, in February the minus was less, and in March sales improved a little. In April, we think the situation will stabilize and the drawdown will be quite small. It was clear that in January there would be a furious drop in all markets: in December the population was getting rid of rubles at such a speed that it was obvious that at the beginning of the year people would no longer have money. Plus, it was the first time that we had such long holidays - 12 days of real rest. People spent money, some went on vacation, many, I think, drank and ate at home rather than in restaurants. Therefore, the fall in January was about minus 50%. But for us it was not critical - unpleasant, of course, but no more than a hole in the road.
— And if we compare the results of 2014 compared to 2013?
- Height. Somewhere around 10-15% in terms of revenue.
We are a very multi-category company - in addition to wine and strong alcohol, we sell large quantities of glass [glasses, decanters, etc.], water and soft drinks. We monitor our market share in value terms for various categories, but we do not measure volumes as is customary - in millions of 9-liter cases, this is not very interesting to us.
— But foreign exchange earnings have dropped significantly? Is she important to you?
— Our financial year ended on April 1 - we have not yet had time to sum up all the results and calculate revenue in euros in detail at rates over the course of the year. But I think, even if we dipped in currency, it would be by no more than 5%. The year has been very difficult and uneven. It started for us with the Olympics, where we were partners, we had a big bar in Sochi, and ended against the backdrop of the devaluation of the ruble. Between these points there was the situation in Ukraine with its heavy news background, sanctions. As a result, the year turned out to be very ragged, absolutely unsystematic. We had to change tactics and approaches to channels several times.
— What are the indicators for the financial year?
- We won’t reveal it. We are a big company. We have been counting hundreds of millions of euros for a long time.
— What is the plan for 2015?
— We set a growth plan of about 20%, budgeting for a rate of 60 rubles. for €1. We were forced to fix a unified budgeting course, understanding, of course, that the situation could change. If the exchange rate goes down, we will adjust prices downwards and believe that demand will increase - thus we will be able to compensate for the drop in revenue due to price by increasing the physical volume of sales. We will try - even in a crisis, we see new markets for ourselves, new sales channels, we see where we can strengthen and improve our positions.
Simple company
Founded in 1994 by Maxim Kashirin and Anatoly Korneev. Behind 20 years on the market, the company has become one of the five largest Russian importers and distributors of wine. The main volume of products is imported from Italy. According to the Federal Customs Service, Simple has been the largest supplier of Italian wines in recent years, occupying a share of about 14% in this category. The company is also one of the five largest suppliers of wine from France, Argentina and South Africa. According to SPARK, in 2013 the revenue of the group’s main company, Simple Company, amounted to 5.896 billion rub. Taxable income - 85.89 million rub. In addition to the distribution business, Simple is involved in side projects: the travel company Simple Travel, the publication of the wine magazine Simple Wine News, the development of the Grand Cru chain of wine stores and the Enotria sommelier school.
“Nikita Sergeevich chose us not by chance”
— If we talk about new markets and sales channels, it is believed that the quality wine that Simple sells is the capital’s history. How much do you account for in sales in Moscow?
— About 70-75% of sales occur in Moscow and 25% in St. Petersburg and the regions. But it is wrong to think that good imported wines are Moscow’s history. In all cities with a population of over a million, people travel to Europe and America. Yes, there may be a different upper price bar - if Moscow is a little unlimited in terms of prices, then at the top the cutoff occurs earlier. I believe that our task for the next three years is to make the proportion of sales in Moscow and the regions at least 65 to 35, and maybe even 60 to 40. I don’t see the possibility, for example, of doubling in Moscow. In the regions I can double and triple, because there we are still weak. We are there, Simple distributes almost all over Russia, but the prospects and opportunities are much larger. However, the period for achieving such a goal is at least 3-5 years.
— You have very expensive wines in your portfolio, for example Petrus, prices for which start at 200 thousand rubles. Do you sell a lot in this category per year?
— We sell a lot of Petrus, we are one of the largest sellers of this wine in Russia. But these are specific clients, I would not like to disclose them. These are special orders. That is, people do not come to our Grand Cru wine stores to buy Petrus. We carry such expensive things for specific clients, and when these clients understand that there will be systematic purchases, we place orders specifically for them. In general, today many rich people prefer to shop in the West, because everything in Moscow is very expensive. Basically, Petrus and this kind of wine in Russia are sold for special urgent situations - you need to make a special gift, for the visit of a serious delegation.
— But such clients still remain, despite the crisis?
- Everything is always on sale.
— A year and a half ago, Simple received an exclusive to sell Nikita Mikhalkov’s line of Tuscan wines...
- This is wrong. We are partners, but we do not have an agreement that we are the only seller of this line of wines. Nikita Sergeevich chose us, of course, not by chance - he knows Simple, we have a certain reputation. And in this case, we rather act simply as an importer and distributor who helps our compatriot. So we helped him “get on” with Aeroflot, with which we cooperate, although he also had his own contacts there. During the Olympics, his wine “flyed” on flights to Sochi. We provide similar tactical services to other Russians, those who own farms in Europe and whose wines we help sell. This is more of a service than our core business.
— They say that in France and Italy there are now quite a lot of farms that were bought by Russian businessmen.
- Yes. And not only businessmen.
— Do you know dozens of such examples?
- Hard to say. I think dozens for sure. I can’t say about hundreds, but definitely tens.
— How much does it cost to buy a chateau in Bordeaux?
— How much does it cost to buy a watch? From the ruble to infinity. There is no specific price. Russians buy farms not only in Bordeaux, but also in other regions of France and Italy. The latest trend is Spain - it’s cheap there now. Many people buy without understanding this business. Then they suffer losses, invest money in the farm every year, believing that it will pay off someday. But in order for an acquisition to become profitable in the future, you need to understand this - invite experienced consultants, build the right business model, and develop a strategy. Abramovich came in some time ago and took a closer look at the wineries. Do you understand what price level he is interested in?
- In Italy?
- Yes. Such people buy status items, where the issue is not even the cost of the wine, but the cost of ownership. A man like Abramovich will not buy an unnamed vineyard in Sardinia because it is next door to his home. He reasons differently: he needs a farm that corresponds to the high level of the owner, which is a real legend. There may be only 100-200 such farms, but they are the only ones that deserve attention. In general, prices on this market vary from 200-300 thousand to tens and hundreds of millions of euros. You can buy a farm in Bordeaux for €3 million, or you can buy it for a billion or more.
— There is a lot of talk now about a new era of Russian winemaking. Everyone is delighted with Krasnostop.
“Our people are delighted, because at least they can drink it now.”
— Is Simple not considering the possibility of adding something Russian to its portfolio?
— Yes, we are considering this possibility. We follow Russian winemaking with interest and we follow Crimea with interest. But we are not ready to invest. As the British say, if you want to go bankrupt, there are two ways: if you want to have fun, play in a casino; if you want to be guaranteed, invest in agriculture. We are looking closely and looking for a farm, a manufacturer that we could take on for distribution, with whom we could enter into such an alliance. But this is difficult, because many Russian farm owners have their own ideas about the market and their own aspirations, which have nothing to do with reality. The farms themselves will not be able to sell their wine without a distributor - it is very difficult and expensive to maintain a distribution machine. Only such serious producers with large investments and political opportunities as Abrau-Durso can afford this. It is necessary for people to lose their euphoria, for them to come down to earth a little and begin to think realistically. To conclude a partnership agreement, we need a quality product, people with strategy and understanding of the market. We are ready to work in tandem.
Photo: Alena Kondurina for RBC
Maxim Kashirin
Born in 1967 in Moscow. Graduate of Moscow State Aviation Technological University named after. Tsiolkovsky. He started doing business in 1991, opening a small supermarket, where he began selling wine, among other things. “One regular customer introduced me to a guy, Anatoly Korneev, who worked for an Italian company that supplied wine to the USSR for Beryozka stores,” Kashirin said in the “Business Secrets with Oleg Tinkov” program. “It was he who suggested creating a wine trading company, and I jumped at the idea.” In 1994, together with Korneev, Kashirin founded the wine trading company Simple (Simple Company LLC). The partners still do business together, being co-owners of the company. “My partner and I are together 14 years,” Kashirin told The Secret of the Company in 2009. — This is because we have the same views and approaches to business. Only the sectors of responsibility differ. He is a pure humanitarian, I am a technician. I am responsible for strategy, finance, administration, he is responsible for the product.”
Now Kashirin is vice-president of Opora Rossii, head of the committee on trade issues, head of the commission on the alcohol and wine industry.
“They stopped opening limits for Russia”
— When the food embargo was introduced in August, weren’t you afraid that imported alcohol would also be banned? Large international companies operating in Russia, out of fear, filled all their Russian warehouses with products...
— Of course, there were concerns, we are normal people. But then it became clear to me that sanctions are being imposed against product groups with very short stocks and very fast purchases with high seasonality. That is, these sanctions should have immediately hit partners abroad. Wine and alcohol in general do not fit these criteria at all. The introduction of sanctions on such goods will not give the immediate desired effect in the near future. The market will feel such sanctions only in about nine months. Therefore, the state most likely chose goods for which the effect of sanctions would be immediate: fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh salads - and immediately a blow to agriculture, to farmers, Europe immediately begins to scream. Well, and the wine, if you don’t sell it right away, it won’t spoil! There is no effect.
- But did you make a reserve just in case?
— Russian companies don’t have that kind of money. And the Western partners with whom we work are not ready to invest so heavily in creating reserves on the Russian market. We calculated that in order to make a reserve, we need to pay about €15 million in additional customs duties. Almost no Russian company can bear such a large financial burden. And if we talk about large international companies - Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Bacardi, then they simply moved large volumes of their goods from one of their own warehouses in Europe to their own warehouse in Russia. There was no risk for them. At first it seemed that they had done this in vain - they objectively did not need such reserves. But in the end they were the winner: they imported the goods at very reasonable rates - 50-55 rubles. for €1, completely filled the drains and got a good cost price. The rates went up, but they still had the goods at the old price. And at this price they began, in a certain sense, to dump against us on the market. We couldn’t afford it - our goods arrived every day, and every day we cleared them at customs at new rates. It so happened that their, on the one hand, wrong step turned out to be, on the other hand, very correct.
— In connection with our financial situation in Russia, did our Western partners begin to demand an advance payment?
- No. The bad news is that Western insurance agencies that insured the debts of Russian importing companies have stopped opening limits for Russia. That is, if I previously took goods on credit, a Western company would insure my debt to the supplier. My partner knew that if I did not pay, he was insured against losses in any case. Now these insurance companies are closing limits either on individual players, quite large ones at that; I will refrain from specific names, or on the country in general. They say: guys, the question is not about you personally, you are good, we have no problems with you, everything is clear, but we are putting a stop to the country. And that’s it, we have a situation where we need to take goods on deferment, but there is nothing to guarantee. Many people won't have enough money to work with advance payment.
— Another big story on the market was the bankruptcy of Rusimport, one of the oldest wine importers in the country. Will many wine merchants have to leave the market?
— As for Rusimport, this is not bankruptcy, but an attempt to escape from creditors, and a very ugly attempt that has cast a shadow on our entire industry. Alexander Mamedov [the main owner of Rusimport] put all of us, Russian importers, in a very ugly position. By failing to fulfill obligations to Alfa Bank and other banks, he showed that the importing company could do this. Limits began to be placed on our industry. I talked to many bankers, they say: now we are afraid to believe you all, because we take your goods as collateral, we come, but there are no goods. How? This is a scam. Where do you put them? At the same time, Rusimport continues to make shipments to contractors. I think they are, in a sense, finished anyway. Such things are not forgiven, especially by Alpha. Perhaps they have some trump cards up their sleeves, but globally, I believe, the old “Rusimport” will no longer exist - the market will not forgive this.
As for others, the visible consequences of the current situation will appear later. May, June, July will be very indicative. We will see who will survive and withstand the present conditions. For all those who import with deferred payment, the peak of orders occurs from September to December - during the New Year's sale. And last year, as usual, everyone ordered a lot, but in December, due to the well-known situation, sales were not very good. Then came a bad start to 2015. If you defer, you must pay for the purchased wine in the period from April to July, that is, now. Banks don’t give much money, including because of the story with Rusimport. And many companies have already exhausted their own cash reserves.
“The quality of wine does not matter for a restaurant”
— Everyone is concerned about the issue of wine pricing in Russia. All people who travel to Europe know that wine there is not very expensive - for example, €10 per bottle, but on the shelf in a Russian store it sells for three times as much. Who takes the difference?
- I'll explain to you. Firstly, we pay about 43% of the purchase price in the form of transportation costs and customs duties. Then another problem arises. In Russia, retail is structured in such a way that it claims back payments in the amount of 35-40% of the delivery price.
— At the legally permitted 10%?
— The allowed 10% is an official retrobonus, a network bonus for volume. They process the remaining amounts as marketing and logistics payments. If I have to pay back to the network in the amount of 30-40% of the delivery price, then I must include this amount in the delivery price itself. There is no point in selling below cost. Next, the network asks for a significant discount from the price list - which means it needs to be included in the delivery price. The result is a fairly high cost. After this, I can no longer put wine in a “horeca” [from the English abbreviation HoReCa - hotels, restaurants, cafes] with a price without all these markups. If I give wine to restaurants at a lower price, chain buyers will call me, and they monitor the entire market and say: why are you offering a small restaurant a price less than a large chain? . And no one will be interested in the fact that I don’t pay “backs” there - the price should be the same.
There is also a struggle for discounts in restaurants. Nobody wants to think about the final price for the guest or compare the quality of the wine. It gets to the point of absurdity when the quality of wine for a restaurant does not matter in the grand scheme of things. We constantly raise this story with back payments in the hope of changing the situation in the market - because of it, all goods are very expensive. In addition, many networks make very good front margins. Okay, Metro C&C is around 12-16%, Auchan is 8%, but other networks raise it to 30, 40, 50, 60%. We are trying to explain to them that such high prices are absolutely ineffective. If we lower the price, we will sell twice as much.
— Is there a backlash?
“They are not at all interested in this.” Retail can throw any alcohol company off the shelf. There are simply products that you really can’t live without. Large corporations - Nestle, Coca-Cola, Danone, PepsiCo, Mars and others - have created a whole pool of brands and created huge conceptual product portfolios that retail cannot do without. There is no substitute for these brands. In our case, anyone can be thrown out of retail - they will put in another wine, and you won’t even notice.
Opposite TSUM there is a wine library on one floor and a bar on the second. Any wine can be ordered to the table or taken with you. The collection includes more than a thousand items, and the bar has an open kitchen and 70 seats. We asked the chef about the atmosphere of the place and what to try.
Opening hours
Vinoteka
Wine bar
Average bill
with a glass of wine
2,000 rubles
average cost
wine bottles
from 1,290 rubles
Chef
Pavel Annenkov
Our menu has clear and at the same time smart food. Even if there are only two ingredients on the plate, complex manipulations took place with them. But it’s unlikely that guests are interested in knowing how many hours their lamb was stewed and how many minutes it was marinated - the result is important.
We are always looking for unusual products, and often this is not easy: you can’t get them with a snap of your fingers or like in a fairy tale. We mainly buy from vegetable companies and cooperate with farmers. For example, in the Moscow region they prepare Camembert for us, and every day we receive freshly baked ciabatta and buckwheat bread.
Our visitors are united by a love of wine, and we support their wonderful feelings. We have a California collection, a large selection of Burgundy and over 500 Bordeaux varieties. Once a month we update more than 10% of our wine range, and the glass offer changes every day.
Our team consists of 12 people who work as a single organism. In those rare moments when there are no orders, we joke and laugh together or discuss how else to surprise our guests. For example, in the spring we refreshed the menu, including adding lunches. By the way, every day I go out to the hall - I sit at the same table with the guests and communicate. I listen to people and understand what they liked and what can be improved.
President of the Simple group of companies
Maxim Kashirin
We opened Simple Wine & Bar in an iconic location as a project that combines quality cuisine, a large selection of wines and affordable prices. There weren’t enough wine places in the center where you can either come for the whole evening or pop in for one glass.
We focus on high quality products and their unusual combinations. The menu, developed by brand chef Adrian Ketglas, is dynamic and stylish - it includes all the latest items so that you can have lunch, dinner, and choose snacks to pair with wine.
And the main thing is that Simple, as an importer, can make a good offer on wine - our list includes more than 200 items of strong alcohol and about a thousand wines, almost all of them can be ordered by the glass. At the same time, the prices for wine are the same as in all our wine stores - without a restaurant markup. You can drink the purchased bottle in the hall by paying a small service fee.
Not everyone can afford to constantly go to expensive gourmet restaurants. To keep the bar democratic, we do not use black caviar and oysters
Photographer: Victoria Dim
Sketch in black tones with rapan and rice
640 rubles
Our experimental dish. On the plate is a rice risotto made from Nero Venere (black rice), ordinary Black Sea saffron, which we, however, work with so that it is as soft and tender as possible. We also add mozzarella and basil sauce, and on top we place pieces of pomelo, passed through nitrogen. The dish has both traditional French notes and accents of new cuisine.
Grilled squid topped with sweet potato cream and lime gel
460 rubles
This is our variation of the classic. We decided to play with the established combination of potatoes and squid and added sweet sweet potato cream, a little parsley and garlic, a mix of paprika and lettuce. But the most important thing is the lemon note. This sweet and sour, fresh and light snack is great for reheating.
Warm salad with beef brisket and eggplant
660 rubles
To prepare this hot appetizer, we simmer the beef brisket for a long time, and it becomes tender. Then we add chickpea popcorn with smoked paprika, as well as six-leaf pkhali cream. And all this is topped off with a salad mix. The result is a fresh, light and spicy play of flavors.
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