18th March 2008

Char very much

William Sitwell talks beef and business with Zeev Godik, the brains behind the brilliant Gaucho Grill chain.
As PR launches go, it may not have been the most wisely conceived, but it was certainly memorable.

Last summer down the small lane that is Swallow Street, the road that joins Regent Street and Piccadilly, crowds gathered as a couple of ponies stood in the doorway of number 25.

Ridden by two men dressed as Argentinian gauchos, they were there to draw attention to a charity being promoted by a South American steak house. The charity, Todos Juntos, which supports children in the slums of Buenos Aires, is the pet cause of restaurateur Zeev Godik.

"It was hilarious," reports someone who was there. "The horses shat in the doorway and then cantered off away down the street, leaving all these pretty blonde PRs scurrying around like chickens trying to find a shovel".

Swallow Street had never seen anything like it. Its a mini word of gastronomy. Its a place of smart suits and fashionable hustle and bustle, not somewhere where you`ll find a bale of straw and shovel to hand. On that one small street are Veerasamy, Bentleys, Volstead, The Cuckoo Club and, of course, Gaucho Grill - the latter being owned by Zeev Godik, the man behind a group of restaurants that has gradually been seeping into the consciousness of foodie London for the past fifteen years.

But even if visitors for Gaucho Grill at number 25 had to sidestep the muck, they instantly forgave Zeev, the driving force behind the simple but successful concept of serving a great steak and a good glass of wine in an upmarket environment.
But how did the curiously named man come to make his mark on the London restaurant scene?

"I was born and educated in Israel and my parents were from Eastern Europe", says the 53 year old in a rare interview for Spears WMS. "I left after doing military service in 1973 and, after travelling for a bit, settled in Amsterdam, where i went to film school".

And it was while studying the movie business that he started a small side-line by opening an Argentinian restaurant near the city`s flower market in the summer of 1976.
"I always had a link to South America because I had family there", he says. "I spoke Spanish and knew the region well. I also had a huge love for beef. Argentina and beef are synonymous. And whenever I went there I was left with this amazing impression - of the purity of the way Argentinians raised their cattle, the grazing and the enormity of the country's open spaces on which the cattle lived".

So it was this inspiration that guided his first opening. "It was supposed to be a temporary adventure, not a life-long career", he laughs. "Then as the restaurant became successful and my staff started to rather depend on me I asked for a sabbatical for a year from film school. Well they wouldn't hear of it and so I had no choice. The restaurant was a commitment i couldn't leave. But I'm so glad it happened. Its a very fulfilling business".

Having opened twenty such restaurants in Holland, he then decided to turn his attention to London and in 1990 bought the Swallow Street restaurant down Mexico Way from the receivers. Four years later the first Gaucho Grill (Gaucho Piccadilly) was born. Today there are Twelve, with eleven in London and one in Manchester. The latest, in London's O2 arena, will open in March and be the largest, with a wine-tasting cellar, bar and capacity for 450 people.

The groups only major blip thus far was a failed attempt to gain a foothold in the Scottish market. In 1992, three years after launching in Glasgow and with plans to open at least seven more in Scotland, Zeev pulled the plug. His fancy steaks failed to catch on north of the border. As Alan Tomkins, chairman of the Glasgow Restaurateurs. Association, puts it "The Gaucho Grill never seemed to set the heather on fire." So Zeev returned to the capital.

"London is a more sophisticated market", Zeev explains, "and if you are in the restaurant business its about the most exciting place in the world. It has gone through a transformation in the last couple of decades and the great thing now is that people here are experimental, they think outside of the box. Its a real privilege to operate in such a market".

His Gaucho concept takes its name from the Argentinian cowboys who deal with no other animals than cattle, who live on horseback, have no fixed abode and who every city boy dreams of being. Its incredibly romantic idea", says Zeev.

Now married to a South African, Patsy, who oversees the interior design of the restaurants, he has three children. "He is very simply a charming and really nice guy", says a friend. "Hes very focused, but not in a way that is egotistically all consuming."
The critics meanwhile have also been pretty positive. Fay Maschler was the first to applaud in the Evening Standard in 1994, praising the formula as `admirably executed`. Ten years later, at the opening of the Sloane Avenue branch and she was still raving about the `enlightened' menu.

But with the increasing pressure of chefs to buy locally, let alone British, Zeev has come in for criticism from some quarters. "Its a shame the meat has to come from Argentina when Scotland provides such good stuff", comments food writer Bill Knott.

Zeevs defence is that he cant find a supplier that can provide him with the right kind of meat and sufficient quantities. `Its Academic', he says. `Its easy to say `buy British' but they cant come up with the goods. The UK already imports 70 per cent of its red meat requirement. But while i would never say never - with, for example, all the funny shifts in the economy - at this stage buying British is not even an issue'.

As to the future, the plan is to grow steadily and invest in staff. The company now has a training academy so that, as he says, staff trained for two weeks `before they even have contact with people'. The result is apparently a level of staff retention which is twice that of the industry norm.

As a leading foodie puts it, `You can really go wrong if you serve a good steak and a great glass of wine and can grow and continue to stay at the high end of the market'. Even if, very occasionally you have to watch your step at the front door.