The Holy Fox cafe in Bolshoy Cherkassky Lane opened in December 2014. Mikhail Kozlov, a graduate of Strelka, an architect of the WOWhaus bureau, GAP Electrotheatre Stanislavsky, Krymskaya Naberezhnaya and Sokolnikov, owns it together with his wife, Tatyana Lapanik, a sociologist-psychologist with a degree from Moscow State University, for three years: the restaurant was previously called Cheese Hole ", And then" Blue cat ". Mikhail asked the bureau for a vacation in order to completely "restart" the concept of the cafe; now in June, he is returning to WOWhaus, and Tatiana will be in charge of the Sacred Fox. We asked Mikhail a few questions about his serious hobby.
Archi.ru:
Tell us about your participation in Wowhaus projects. How long have you been with the bureau and why exactly there?
Mikhail Kozlov:
- I have been working at Wowhause for three years, before that I studied at the Strelka Institute and worked in several architectural organizations, one of them is the workshop of Andrey Nekrasov. I worked there for about four years, gained experience, then there were several more bureaus. Later he was engaged in a private project with his brother and his wife, they are also architects, and then went on an internship in England for several months, after which there was Strelka. After graduating, I thought for a long time where to go to work further, I was invited for an interview at WOWhaus and we immediately got along. The first project was Sokolniki, at that time there was a change in the power of the park - Andrey Lapshin came there, and they started to reorganize the space, rethink the park. We came up with a big enough concept, but we didn't have enough money. As a result, a small part was completed, affecting the center of the park: a large circle of the ice rink and what is inside, as well as a new site "Planet Ice". Unfortunately, not everything was implemented due to various circumstances. After Sokolniki, there were several small projects, and then - Krymskaya Embankment, which we completed in a year. A week later, we started a new project of the Electrotheatre, I was appointed the leading architect, as on the Crimean embankment.
Why did you decide to open your own restaurant? What can make an architect open his own restaurant in general - is it a change of qualifications?
- No, this is definitely not a change in qualifications, it is an additional interest. All people have an interest in something or a hobby. I don't have a hobby as such, my hobby is a restaurant. It takes a lot of effort, any resources, but it is very interesting and curious. It seems to me that every architect wants to open his own restaurant. There are many aspects here, unfortunately, few people know what it is and what actually stands behind it, but a certain desire is always present. I continue to work as an architect and try to follow the life that happens here. When I return to work, of course, Tatiana will be here every day, I will pay a little less attention to the restaurant.
Aren't you afraid of a crisis, especially if you take into account the specifics of a restaurant without a sign - or are you counting on friends?
- A crisis is a time that affects different businesses in different ways: it even gives someone an additional chance. The prosperity of such a business as a restaurant is not entirely dependent on the crisis, in my opinion. The paying capacity of guests has certainly decreased and everyone is trying to adapt to this, including us, but the philosophy and the thoughts that we put into this place implies the possibility of different people, from different social strata, to come to us and feel comfortable. We do not have large markups for food, wine or drinks, in the end it turns out to be really inexpensive, this is our honest dialogue with the guests. We deliberately try to move in this direction, which is probably not the most effective from the point of view of business, but fruitful from the point of view of finding our audience, new guests who will soon become permanent.
Have you done a lot of restaurant interior projects before, or is this the first one?
- This is my first restaurant project, before that I only made private interiors. It was not an easy task, since in fact I was my own customer, my hands were free, but there were still limitations, including the budget. We didn't have a lot of money, but we needed to make a good interior, corresponding to its time, to the things that are happening here. And the room itself is not very simple: it was necessary to correctly divide all the zones and activities that take place here, in the end I am quite satisfied with the result. We completely redesigned the premises, nothing remained of the "Blue Cat". One of the first tasks that we solved was to increase the number of seats, while reducing the kitchen, but making it more thoughtful, logical and compact. It is very good that the key characters appeared in a timely manner - chef Dan and bar manager Lisa, who, at the planning stage, helped to correctly plan their jobs. A very common practice when the chef changes is that the kitchen layout is completely redesigned for him from scratch. When we didn’t know the guys yet, I was very worried that we could do something now, and then it would be difficult for people to work, and a lot depends on this. In the end, everything went well and on time. There were many tasks, they solved everything by joint efforts!
Now, as far as I understand, you are temporarily on vacation. Are you planning to return to work as an architect?
- Yes, I do, of course! In June I will return to my main work. Many who work in architectural bureaus know what kind of work it is, how much time and effort it takes, there are no standardized schedules, there is never enough time for anything, so you have to spend non-working time on projects. But this is normal for those areas in which people want to do something well. I don’t know, probably, someone manages to do everything on time, but, unfortunately, we have not yet reached this level either in WOWhaus or in our restaurant. When the work is interesting, you are ready to spend your personal time on it, this is important. And when you realize that you urgently want to go home, you have to think - maybe it's worth changing your job?
