2023-08-03 10:00:48
It is possible that Rondeel will reopen, but not for sure. Photo by Roman Vikulov
The Rondeel restaurant, which operates at the Narva Museum, in its traditional place, in the gun tower of the Western Yard, is once again closed. This will happen in mid-August, according to museum director Maria Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova, who gave an interview to Narva Gazeta on this sad occasion.
First of all, “NG” asked what are the reasons for the closure of the restaurant, which is a structural unit of the museum? What has been his financial performance lately?
“Financial indicators of objects operating in the tourism sector, as a rule, are not evaluated on a monthly basis, because there is a strong influence of seasonality,” says Maria Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova. – Thus, during the tourist season, the company works in plus, which should eventually cover the minus of the low season. According to the total results of this year’s work, when large-scale construction work is underway on the territory of the museum and new communications are being laid in the immediate vicinity of the restaurant, the forecasts for the restaurant’s activities in the low season, which will begin in September, do not inspire optimism. The negative forecast is also directly affected by a significant increase in the heat energy tariff. In this regard, it was decided to avoid financial losses by closing the restaurant in mid-August.
Reconstruction work continues in the Western courtyard of the castle. Photo: Roman Vikulov
The financial performance of the restaurant in recent years can be found in the annual financial report.”
– Were there options for reorganization/optimization of the restaurant? Has the museum tried to make it profitable? How?
– The reorganization of the restaurant’s work has taken place over the past few years, starting with the onset of covid times in 2020 and continuing with the closure of the transit and Russian markets in 2022. The museum has always tried to respond very quickly and flexibly to external circumstances.
Discussion of the further fate of the restaurant is scheduled for the end of this year, when the renovated Western Yard will be put into operation and the situation with the demand in the market will be clear.
In 2020, the restaurant was closed, then resumed its work, and in the course of this work, both the dishes offered in the restaurant (i.e., various menus and the form of their offers) and the restaurant employees, as well as the very structure of operating it, changed. The latest changes were made in July of this year, when the prospect of orders until the end of the year did not show positive dynamics.
How much does the head chef of a restaurant earn?
– At the moment, there is no such position in the staff list of the museum. The duties of the head chef are performed by an experienced restaurant chef who also works on a shift. This form of operation is associated, among other things, with the aim of saving money in conditions of low demand. Salaries for employees of the museum restaurant, depending on qualifications, since 2023, when the minimum wage was raised, range from 4.30 euros (gross) to 6 euros per hour, the hourly wage of the head chef has been increased to 8 euros per hour.
Will the museum look for a tenant for the restaurant? Can it close permanently?
– Discussion of the future fate of the restaurant is scheduled for the end of this year, when the renovated Western Courtyard will be put into operation and the situation with the demand on the market will be clear.
Reconstruction work continues in the Western courtyard of the castle. Photo: Roman Vikulov
It is also worth recalling that under the terms of the European project for the reconstruction of the convention building (the project was completed in 2020), by 2025 the museum must open a cafe in the premises of the convention building, which provides for 2.5 working rates. Already now, on the territory of the Northern Yard, from May to the end of August, a summer cafe is open, which shows a good result. I am sure that in one form or another a cafe or restaurant will operate in the museum, since the ability to offer meals to groups allows you to sell packaged museum services. Perhaps in the future this service will have an exclusively seasonal character.
The post Rondeel restaurant in Narva is closing. Its future prospects are not yet clear first appeared on gazeta.ee.
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