New fabulous restaurant from WRF - “Guidon”

A new fabulous restaurant from WRF - “Guidon”. Interview with bar manager Anton Pyzhik

The recently opened Guidon restaurant on Bolshaya Nikitskaya has already earned high marks from critics.

The White Rabbit Family project began working at the end of August, and now you can often hear the restaurant being called “the discovery of the year.”

We met with the bar manager of Guidon, Anton Pyzhik, and talked about the new, fabulous, in all respects, WRF project.

Tell us a little about the concept of the restaurant?

The concept is that when entering the restaurant, we find ourselves in a kind of underwater world, walking on a golden floor that looks like golden sand, the chandeliers are decorated in the form of jellyfish. When you come here in the evening, the lighting, all the interior details: dishes, floors, walls, everything creates the image of an underwater kingdom. The concept in terms of food and drinks is a mixture of Russian and French cuisines. From a combination of Russian fairy tales, for example, the same fairy tale about Guidon, and France, this was the brainchild.

A very cool interior, we will definitely show it in our photo report. Tell us: what was your approach to developing drinks?

Our task was to make it a mixture of Russian and French history. There are probably not so many local ingredients, it’s more Russian names plus French components, it’s all in collaboration. Plus the presentation is as sophisticated as French dishes. This is how the cocktail menu turned out. When we talk in more detail about specific cocktails, these features will be clearly visible.

You have a wide variety of cocktails with original names, for example: “Svatya Baba Babarikha”, “Thirty-three heroes”, “Chernomor”. How did you choose the names and recipes for such original cocktails?

Initially, the idea came from Boris Zarkov. He said that since we are all about Tsar Saltan, let’s make the names of the cocktails just as fabulous. We all picked it up because it was a cool idea, it could all be connected. We wrote down all the characters we had and started thinking. “Chernomor” - we immediately thought that it was something digestive, dense, some kind of black berries. This is how the first recipe was born. We use French liqueur Dijon, bourbon, Branca Menta. This is a very cool digestif. It is dense, dark in color, and berry. When it hits the guest’s table, everything becomes clear. Both visually and tastefully, there is complete immersion in the name.

What can you say about “Marriage Baba Babarikha”?

We couldn't stay without this fairy tale character. Here the story is this: because they use red berries, gin, violet. This is a variation on the Aviation cocktail. Why “Svatya Baba Babarikha”? Because when you drink it, you can taste the jam that you eat while sitting at your grandmother’s house. Violet is a perfume story, it has quite a strong scent. Basically, it turned out cool. During the tasting, people approved.

So the tastes and names of the cocktails have something in common?

Yes, they are very connected. Either the taste or the presentation. We have “Thirty-three heroes”. We serve it in a glass barrel, we ourselves made a story that heroes should have special dishes, barrels, for example. After a hard day at work, they were clearly drinking something.

Surely, the containers in which they are served play an important role in creating cocktails. What are the main criteria for choosing glassware for cocktails?

For each project, dishes are selected individually. We chose one dish for “Gorynych”; in order to adhere to the concept, we needed something neat, thin, without carvings. This is exactly what we were guided by. These had to be neat glasses made of thin glass.

Why exactly neat? The theme is fabulousoh, yes, you also have heroes...

It seems to me that if everything was done in a fairy-tale style, it would be too much. It is clear that we are boasting in this restaurant. This is France after all - they have interesting cuisine. We needed thin glass to make it all look cool in contrast. It looks beautiful when the interior has elements of wild brick combined with thin glass. Again, this is a team effort: we do not make decisions individually. There is my opinion, there is the opinion of Boris, the opinion of the designers. Together we come to some common decision. This is a team effort. Every time a restaurant opens. It has never happened to us that someone alone is responsible for the kitchen or the bar, you do exactly that, and no one bothers you. These are always constant meetings, zooms. A lot of options arise, we try them all, look at them in serving and then make a decision. We set the tables that are now in the hall at other locations. We had an example of a table, we set it up, served it and looked at how it would look in the lighting.

So you even select tables for lighting?

Yes, let's see how it will look when finished. Because you might like the glass in a shop window or on Instagram, but when you put it on the table you realize that it’s something not right.

We all know that Guidon is one of the most anticipated projects of the year, and the fabulous interior plays a special role. We've already talked a little about this. What were your first impressions when you saw the project or the finished interior?

This is definitely a beautiful restaurant. This is Fine Dining, but very comfortable. You come here, it’s very interesting, cozy, you really feel immersed in the concept that was conceived.

Let's talk a little about the kitchen. As we have already mentioned, Russian cuisine is combined here with French. Is it possible to trace this bias in the bar chart? Not only in cocktails, but also in other drinks that are offered.

Yes. In this project we made a big emphasis on aperitifs and digestifs. We serve separate aperitif and digestive cards. A very large collection of various liqueurs Amaro, Sauternes, Chartreuse. For a good restaurant it is important to have a digestive card. It seems to me that there are few people in Moscow who can offer you this. We try, constantly work on it, order and test something new, look at the reaction of guests, and constantly add to it. We remove what we don’t like. In general, we are experimenting with aperitifs and digestifs here. The aperitif and digestive history is characteristic of France. The first half of the day is aperitif, and at the end of dinner, when they bring the dessert menu, digestifs are listed there. We tried to do something similar.

Which menu items would you say are your favorites?

I don't have any favorites. The map can be divided into three categories. The first is that people usually drink a lot: light drinks in highballs, some of our soda and strong alcohol. There is a sour category - it includes three drinks: this is a sweet and sour balance, they are a little stronger. The filling is some kind of berries, now we are using feijoa. And two or three digestive drinks. This is all very situational. If I ate a fatty steak, I'd gravitate toward thick, sweet stories; if I popped in for a quick coffee in the evening, I'd try a light drink to keep me comfortable in the evening. Or it will be some kind of sour, which you can drink before meals, because the strength in it is very loyal. In general, we work very carefully with strength, because trends are towards people moving away from strong drinks.

I often ask this question, and they always answer me: “I like everything!”

I can't say that I like everything at all. If I only did what I liked, it wouldn’t be entirely right. Zhenya Shashin also took part in the development of the map. We tried, exchanged opinions, I didn’t like some drinks, but he liked them, and we left them. All people are different, as are their tastes. Therefore, when you create a map, it’s very cool to gather three people so that everyone can try it and give their opinion.

What are your plans for the future: in 2021, 2022?

Our holding is growing, but all the information is still very confidential, I can’t reveal anything. As always, our projects are the best, grandiose, aesthetic, incredible, popular and long-awaited.

Well, let's look forward to new discoveries!