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Around The Rings, the news site and information service that concentrates on the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement, has begun to carry the newsleter that I write about Sochi. I am glad for the association and look forward to working with Around The Rings on other projects as the Olympics approach.
Sochi Newsletter- May 3 has been sent to subscribers. Included are photos and details about May Day in Sochi and other recent developments in Sochi. Please follow this link and sign up for the newsletter. Next week, in the newsletter, we will include a summary of our survey of office and residential rental prices for central Sochi and Adler. We are currently working with outside groups on workforce accommodation. It looks like the predicted rise in prices is happening already. Prices in Adler for apartments with western standards in the best locations are eclipsing levels in central Sochi.
Several outside organizations have been inquiring about office space for rent in Sochi. I viewed an office on the 4th floor of a building on Kurortniy Prospekt, across the street from the Moskva Hotel (to be rebuilt with the Marriott flag). This office was 60 square meters and was available at a price of 1,500 rubles per square meter per month. This contrasted with prices from 800- 1,000 rubles per square meter per month on Vinogradnaya and Gagarina Streets. Another office was rented in another centrally located hotel for 1,800 rubles per square meter per month.
A very attractive office consisting of two floors and 1,350 square meters is for rent at 822 rubles per square meter. The price is more reasonable, but the space is quite large compared to most offices. The office is in the same complex as Aleksandr's Lighthouse and below the Lighthouse Restaurant. The location is very good and the office has excellent view of the Black Sea.
View from office
Office
Martial Simonneau the owner and head chef at Brigantina Cafe and Brasserie, took time this week to talk to me about his restaurant, his service ethos and the arc of his life from Normandy through Nice, Paris and Moscow to Sochi, where the Brigantina is the only French-owned and operated restaurant in the city center. Martial learned about the restaurant business from his parents' restaurant in Normandy. He lived in Nice and and later in Paris, where he worked at the famous De la Paix Cafe for several years. Eventually, Martial was hired to run the kitchen at a casino in Moscow. In 2002, he came to Sochi to manage a restaurant in Krasnaya Polyana, where he worked for several years. After this, he detoured to Yekaterinburg to run a casino. Two years ago, drawn by the promise of Sochi, he moved back and opened Brigantina Cafe and Brasserie next to the seaport. His son, Bastien, a graduate of business school in Paris, has come to Sochi to help. Martial and Bastien have opened a second cafe, Napoleon, a few blocks away on Vorovskovo Ulitsa, where they offer French baked goods. Theirs are the only locations in Sochi where one can buy a genuine French croissant.
The Brigantina, as evidenced by the photo, appeals to celebrities and political leaders visiting Sochi and is noted for offering the best and most consistent cuisine in Sochi. Martial and Bastien are ever present, seeing to the needs of diners and assuring that all runs smoothly. Martiall's ethic of attention to detail and, above all, the customer, is reflected in the well-trained staff. I asked Martial, who was recently profiled in Forbes Russia, about his experiences with restaurant ownership in Sochi. Martial said, with a laugh. that "in Russia everything is difficult, but nothing is impossible." Martial and Bastien are planning to expand their operation to include other kinds of food service, including a bar/ cafe that will be designed to appeal to the underserved professional clientele seeking a place after work and in the evenings.
Specialities at Brigantina include steak frites, mussels, escargot, oysters from France and live crab flow in from Canada. The menu also offers several pasta and pizza selections and the wine list ranges from inexpensive local offerings to several very expensive Bordeaux wines. The Brigantina stays open 24/7 and has both indoor and outdoor dining areas.
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